News & Insights
Photo courtesy of: Greg Land
Under Friday night lights earlier this month, Maret School ran out for its first-ever football game on Barrett Fields—debuting a revitalized athletics hub designed to bring the whole community a little closer together. The evening felt like a ribbon-cutting and a reunion all at once: students crowding the rails, alums trading stories at the gate, and the Frogs charging onto a fresh, emerald surface that finally felt like “home.”
Set in the Chevy Chase neighborhood of Washington, D.C., the Barrett Fields complex is purpose-built for a full K12 program: a multipurpose field for football, soccer, and lacrosse, paired with a regulation-size baseball diamond—two stages for student-athletes to chase big moments throughout the year.
Several years before a construction vehicle showed up on sight, Maret worked closely with the surrounding neighbors and local neighborhood leadership. This work resulted in an agreement between Maret and the community that outlined the framework for how the field would be built and operated to mitigate concerns in the change from vacant field to active place. The result? Upgrades that not only focused on the game-day atmosphere, but considerate of the community’s concerns.
Today, new infrastructure brings power to the scoreboard and timing systems, fencing organizes safe access and egress, and a bioretention zone quietly does the work of stewarding stormwater at the edge of the site—high-function details that make the fields reliable, resilient, and ready for heavy school use.
The result is more than a field; it’s a campus extension where students, families, and neighbors can gather—weeknights for practice, Saturdays for youth clinics, and fall weekends for contests that knit a school community together. As K12 leaders across the Mid-Atlantic look to create durable, versatile athletics space, Barrett Fields offers a practical model: right-sized competition venues, layered site systems, and a clear circulation plan, all nested in a neighborhood setting.
B&D served as project manager from construction through close-out alongside the build team, coordinating site logistics and stakeholder communications to bring Barrett Fields to the finish line—and we’re incredibly proud to have helped Maret open this new home for its student-athletes.
