Parish Episcopal School

Dallas, Texas

The Midway Campus of Parish Episcopal School, a private academy in Dallas, Texas, was acquired in 2002, 30 years after the initial Hillcrest Campus was founded. Gracing the Midway campus is a primary academic building, formerly an ExxonMobil office, that was originally designed by well-known architect I.M. Pei, creating a campus with an architectural heritage not often found in K-12 schools. This focus on architecture was key when the school decided to hire Dallas-based architects BOKA Powell to design a new addition: the Noble Family Performing Arts Center.

Sadly, Mira Foshee, a student at the school, passed away in a tragic accident in 2019. Her untimely passing coincided with the construction of the new performing arts center. The landscaped area in front of the structure, near the entrance to the school, became a natural place to locate a memorial garden in her honor, designed by BOKA Powell, centered around a graceful architectural fountain.

The performing arts center was scheduled for completion in 2021. It was important to school officials that the memorial garden and fountain be completed at the same time as the new center so that both projects were ready for the 2021-2022 school year. Under that timeline, students who knew Mira would still be on campus and able to enjoy the water feature.

Idea

Parish Episcopal School hired OTL to design and build the garden’s memorial fountain. Our Texas-based construction team coordinated closely with BOKA Powell, as well as the project’s general contractor McCarthy Building Company, to deliver the water feature simultaneously with the performing arts center’s completion.

OTL created a 14-foot-diameter architectural fountain – an elegant work of art featuring two opposing Reuleaux triangles (curved triangles created from the intersection of three circles). McCarthy Building Company constructed the concrete basin as a donation for the memorial, containing outer walls that vary in width from 8 inches to 30 inches. The basin is capped with honed Carrara marble; within the triangular basin sits an elevated triangular form, a black precast concrete monolith weighing over a ton. The sculpture, The Butterfly Effect, was created by internationally renowned artist Simeen Farhat.

The geometry of this centerpiece is such that the upper face is a spherical surface, so that water flows over the form equally in all directions. The surface is textured with a series of shallow ridges that create subtle movement in the flowing water and maximize sparkle. The result is a stunning representation of youthful spirit, captured in motion, light and sound.

Impact

The Mira Foshee Memorial Fountain is the centerpiece of Mira’s Spirit Garden at Parish Episcopal School’s Midway campus. The garden and water feature comprises a beautiful tribute to a life that ended too soon and a fitting way for the school to honor this young girl.

A meaningful introduction to the campus’ newly finished performing arts center, the garden and fountain provide current and future students, as well as all who knew Mira, with an awe-inspiring place to pay tribute to her life for many years to come.