The Peddie School in Heightstown, NJ, is regarded as one of the finest prep schools in the country. And while its 280-acre campus features many historic buildings that lend to the school’s tradition, one of the most notable structures is also one of its newest, the 42,000 sq. ft. Walter and Leonore Annenberg Science Center. Designed by RMJM Miller, the building features one floor dedicated solely to genetics and biology and another to physics and robotics. Summer programs focusing on those technologies attract students from throughout the country.

The $19 million building is a combination of brick, glass and zinc and features two similarly sized educational volumes bisected by a large central corridor. The central space, while the least important in terms of the building’s purpose, is actually the most important from a design perspective. Rising well above the flanking educational spaces, the corridor is glazed at both ends and along one side while its remaining side is bowed outward and clad with vertically oriented single-lock standing seam panels that were fashioned from long-lasting zinc.

The zinc material chosen for the project was QUARTZ-ZINC® preweathered zinc from Umicore Building Products USA of Raleigh, NC. In addition to being chosen for the bowed corridor wall, the material was also used for the horizontally installed single-lock standing seam panels that wrap the upper half of one of the classroom blocks.

Handling the installation of the zinc standing seam panels was Aetna Roofing Corporation. The project’s general contractor was Skanska USA Building Inc.

Project photographs by Paul Kozlowski