Yarm School, a major private school in Cleveland, occupies a tight town centre site straddling a major road, with its sports facilities located several miles away and with little potential for future expansion. The school had identified a potential edge of town site for the amalgamation of all their facilities and commissioned a feasibility study to establish the effectiveness of the site.
The study demonstrated the unique opportunity which the site presented to create an idyllic landscaped campus which could provide for current and future needs in a clear and rational layout. A series of landscape design strategies were developed for the site, which included perimeter woodland planting to create enclosure and setting, buildings set within a parkland character of lawns and specimen trees and a major rowing lake as the focus of the school complex and site drainage system. These strategies were integrated into an overall layout proposal aimed at creating an environment in which to pursue academic and sporting excellence.