Our 2019–2024 Strategic Plan and campus renewal process demonstrated a collective effort toward a common goal: to ensure the longevity of our school and to provide a Midland education to students for many, many generations to come. The projects completed during this period, including student life improvements, infrastructure updates, and new faculty housing, represent an important chapter in Midland’s ongoing evolution and stewardship of this place.
As with most things at Midland, these campus planning efforts were the result of many years of thorough and thoughtful work by members across our community. Tendrils of this work root all the way back to our founding in 1932, to the framework of consistent evolution laid by Paul and Louise Squibb in Midland’s earliest days. We would not be where we are today without the support of so many of you: alumni, faculty, staff, families, and friends from across the decades.
In many ways, Midland has changed an enormous amount since its founding: new physical structures, new and revised curriculum, welcoming girls into our student body, growing and eating from a beautiful farm and garden, and putting the majority of our acreage in a land trust. Through it all, we have endeavored to maintain our most authentic Midland self.
Change has never been easy. Paul Squibb thought long and hard about the evolution from the Kerosene to Electric Era here on campus. Yet often, change has been inevitable. We wonder sometimes what he might think of the internet and our approach to a cell-phone-free campus, or how thrilled he might be by our student-built solar arrays. The world changes, and in some ways so must we. Midland’s recent campus renewal work grew from that same understanding: that preserving the spirit of this place sometimes requires thoughtful, practical change.
Priority 1: Natural Landscape Integration
Careful thought went into the selection of materials and design, aligning necessary new construction with the simple, rustic place we call home. These decisions were guided in part by the Walker Macy Campus Plan, adopted in 2013 as a long-term framework for thoughtful campus development and stewardship of Midland’s landscape. From reassessing the risk of Sahm Canyon’s flood path to prioritizing natural spaces between cabins for outdoor gathering, Midland’s reintegration into its natural landscape became a foundational part of these renewal efforts.
Priority 2: Environmental Stewardship
Stories of Midland’s Kerosene Era remain a guiding light, helping us remember our traditions. A sense of place and care for the world around us are natural outcomes of a Midland education. Though deeply entwined in our history, wood burning as a means of heating water carries one of the highest carbon footprints, and today’s building codes make cabin wood stoves and showerfires impractical as well as environmentally irresponsible. While solar is not new to Midland, these projects affirmed that solar power is part of our new norm and integral to the long-term stewardship of campus.
Priority 3: Santa Barbara County Regulations
Safe and effective plumbing. Fire prevention. Sanitation. Safe shelter. Today more than ever, Midland is governed by building codes and local rules that seek to protect people and the environment. Meeting the needs of today’s students and families has meant finding the balance between rugged, rustic, and simple and what is also adequate, sanitary, and safe. Early Midland structures served us well for many, many years. This campus renewal work allowed us to meet the needs of our community, and building codes, with simple construction that fits who we are and who we seek to become.
Student Life: Cabins & Bathrooms
Midland has long maintained a tradition of students caring for shared spaces, including cleaning and maintaining the bathrooms in the Upper and Lower Yards as part of the school’s jobs system. Over decades, students and faculty patched and repaired these facilities as needed, but the focus on short-term fixes eventually led to declining functionality. Updating, and in some cases building anew, became necessary to ensure that the next generations of Midland students could continue to take responsibility for their shared spaces within facilities that meet modern sanitation and safety standards.
At the same time, Midland addressed the long-standing challenge posed by Sahm Canyon’s flood path. Every twenty to thirty years, heavy rains turn this section of campus, home to Upper Yard cabins and nearby faculty families, into a flood channel. Guided by the 2013 Walker Macy Campus Plan, Midland relocated the Upper Yard cabins to a site near Rich House II and the Amphitheater, reducing flood risk while keeping the cabins integrated within the broader campus.
While the original plan anticipated relocating the existing pan-abode cabins, updated Santa Barbara County codes revealed that moving them would require extensive seismic modifications that would alter their structure and reduce livable space. Midland instead constructed new cabins that maintain the rustic character of the originals while meeting modern safety standards, preserving and repurposing materials from the original cabins where possible.
Faculty Homes
According to tradition, Midland’s first faculty arrived and sequentially worked with teams of students and fellow faculty to build the homes they and their families would live in during their tenure on campus. As the decades passed, homes were handed down from one faculty family to the next, and as our need for faculty grew alongside the college preparatory system, homes were added here and there, or faculty lived in modest homes in town.
Over the last 20 years, the Santa Ynez Valley has erupted into a booming tourism landscape, drastically increasing local housing costs. In tandem with more stringent Santa Barbara County codes, no longer can we simply add a home on our own terms, and the reduction in double-employee homes left Midland facing a stark housing shortage on campus. In order to retain and attract top faculty to engage in our program, the addition of faculty homes became a clear priority.
For the first time in many years, Midland completed a one-story, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home located near Kit’s Barn on the outskirts of our central campus. Our very own Jim Quick ’68 led the project, and we are pleased not just to have another faculty home in our inventory, but also that the house fits so seamlessly into our natural landscape. Midland also completed a duplex-style faculty housing project in the meadow adjacent to Lower Yard. By tapping into the efficiency of custom factory-built structures, the school was able to accelerate the construction timeline, minimize on-campus disturbances, and maintain a high level of quality control. Careful attention was paid to preserving the rustic Midland aesthetic.