by Anya ‘31
The Harvard-Westlake Middle School Campus is huge! Acres and acres of different buildings, with different names, and classrooms, and floors, and stairs (so many stairs). No one can be faulted for getting lost or confused a few times. Even with experience, I still get mixed up. So here’s my comprehensive guide to what’s where at the Harvard-Westlake Middle School, and along the way what purpose each location serves.
I remember first getting my schedule and classes for the year, each one was marked with the room number. But I was still confused: “HC224”? “BG101”? What do the letters and numbers mean? And “SFIELD” doesn’t even have numbers! You see, Harvard-Westlake’s format starts each room number with two letters, which are abbreviations for which building it’s in. There are generally 4 main buildings to remember: Hazy Center (HC), Wang Hall (WA), Bing Performing Arts (BG), and Seaver Science Center (SE). While the letters tell you what building you’ll be looking for, the last 3 numbers give you a clue as to which floor your exact classroom is on. But for now let’s go through each of the 4 main buildings one by one.
First on the list is Hazy Center. This rather rectangular building is right next to Horn Commons, the main grassy area besides Sprague Field (which is the “SFIELD” I mentioned earlier) and is home to all the Math and English classrooms. All HC200s (e.g. HC224, HC218 etc.) are on the ground level right as you walk in from the Commons. HW’s Bookstore can be found to the right, stocked with all sorts of stationary students can use for class, as well as clothing for P.E. or just showing school spirit. The Cafeteria is located on the left, and is stocked from 7:30am-4:30pm everyday with snacks like fresh fruit or crackers, as well as hot food during lunch that changes throughout the week. Up the historical Westlake Stairs, we have a few more classrooms as well as the departments’ offices, perfect for students to have meetings with teachers or just study for a test. The math conference room is in HC314 (it’s π(pi) get it?).
Next is the Bing Performing Arts Center. Like the name says, Bing is home to all of HW’s extensive performing arts classes, which includes instruments, dance, theater, and choir. Harvard-Westlake offers classes involving violin, viola, cello, bass, clarinet, trombone, trumpet and a variety of other instruments, most of which are available to borrow from the school to save students from the trouble of bringing them back and forth. The Choir and Dance rooms are also both uniquely well-designed for great acoustics or with floor to ceiling mirrors respectively to truly help the students pursue class to the best of their ability. Bing Performing Arts is also the center for HW’s Saperstein Theater and The Blackbox Theater for the cast to practice for whichever seasonal musical or stage production they’ve been working on.
While Seaver Science Center doesn’t host quite as many different locations, it’s still home to all the science classrooms. Each one has its own lab area with multiple sinks and valves for classroom activities like the hands-on labs we do in almost every class.
The last building I’m going to cover is Wang Hall. This building is home to all the language, history, and visual arts classes. The walls themselves are covered with numerous beautiful art or photography projects from previous classes. The language classrooms are also decorated with posters from cultural events hosted by the teachers for their respective country’s celebrations.
All in all, this blog didn’t even cover everything. There’s so much to explore at Harvard Westlake, and every day I’m still looking out for a new quiet study place or hidden gem somewhere on campus. But this is what I’ve found so far and I hope it helps!
