A New Leaf School, located in Houston’s historic Heights neighborhood, is an adaptive re-use and addition to the National Register of Historic Places listed Burnett Residence. The home is a circa 1904 Queen Anne style contributing structure to the neighborhood.

Early programming discussions for the kinder through fifth grade private school, focused on children with unique learning abilities in the area of language and speech development, envisioned a two-building campus. PMB Architecture developed a more novel solution to maximize the limited site area: expanding areas for outdoor learning and preserving the existing tree coverage and garden areas.

In order to accomplish this, a two-story classroom addition was conceived to integrate into the raised pier-and-beam original structure and within the height restrictions laid out by the Houston Archaeological & Historic Commission (HAHC), the governing agency for the development.

The result is a seamless, unified administration, therapy and educational facility where cues of the original period architecture have been reinterpreted in a new way.