Click to watch the livestream of Woods House on Thursday, April 23. The move is tentatively slated to begin between 9 and 10 am ET.
This week, a 45-ton historic residence will travel 200 feet across North Country School & Camp Treetops campus in less than a day. For months, 4-9th graders have had a front-row seat—and active role—as construction crews prepared to relocate “Woods House,” a historic residential building that has anchored life on the Lake Placid campus since 1942. The site preparation work has allowed students to observe, question, and participate through each phase of the planning and site work, turning a complex facilities project into a months-long, hands-on learning science, math, and art experience.
“This is what learning looks like here,” said Todd Ormiston, Executive Director. “Our students aren’t just hearing about physics, engineering, or environmental decision-making—they’re seeing it unfold in real time and learning from it in a once-in-a-lifetime way.”
This Thursday, April 23, Woods House will be transported 200 yards from where it now stands. As the building is lifted using a series of hydraulic systems and moved to its new location, students will play an active role in the process—observing, analyzing, and engaging with the move as part of the school’s hands-on, experiential approach to education.
Preserving the Past, Building for the Future, Caring for the Environment
The decision to move the beloved structure rather than demolish and build new is in keeping with the organization’s commitment to environmental stewardship.
“This move also allows us to further affirm our responsibility to care for this place and to instill that passion in the children who live, learn, and play here,” Ormiston said.
The relocation will allow for renovations and expansion of Woods House, including the addition of much-needed new faculty housing. At the same time, the building’s original site will be repurposed for future campus initiatives.
“Reusing and expanding an existing structure is simply the more responsible path,” said Adam Boudreau, Principal of Tupper Lake-based Kentile Excavating. “It reduces material waste, limits site disruption, and allows us to build on what already exists rather than starting from scratch. On a project like this, a big part of that is finding ways to separate and repurpose the existing soil, retaining both the resources and the character of the original site.”
According to Boudreau, materials from the existing site are being reused wherever possible, and excavation work has been carefully managed to protect surrounding waterways. Additionally, every single piece of equipment on site over the last few weeks is a Tier 4 final diesel motor, meaning it meets the strictest EPA requirements and significantly cuts down on nitrous oxide and particulate matter emissions.
In addition to Kentile Excavating, additional partners in the move owner’s representation firm DBI Projects, Larmon House Movers of Schuylerville, NY, Cascade Builders of Saranac Lake, NY, and K & M Concrete Construction LLC of West Chazy, NY.
Learning in Real Time
Students have had opportunities to engage directly with the project throughout the process, connecting academic concepts with real-world applications. Learning integrations include:
- Engineering & Physics: Students observed load transfer, hydraulic systems, and structural support in real time, watching how weight shifts across a moving frame and how the hydraulic dollies responded to uneven ground.
- Mathematics: Students calculated weight distribution, distances, and scale related to the move, from the 45-ton load to the precise grading required to keep the structure level across campus.
- Environmental Studies: The relocation sparked discussion about sustainability, material reuse, and watershed protection. Students also examined the irrigation systems around Woods House, exploring how construction disrupts and restores water flow.
- Humanities & Arts: Students documented the move through film photography, shooting negatives they will develop into archival prints for the school’s archives.
- Cross-Curricular: The move became a lens for examining human scale in the natural world. Science and humanities classes explored the Anthropocene together, comparing construction machinery to glacial processes. A drum roller mimics glacial abrasion. Excavation mirrors glacial plucking. A dump truck depositing backfill echoes glacial deposition. The difference is time: what a glacier does over thousands of years, these machines did in weeks. Students sat with two essential questions: How do the energy and speed of construction compare to those of a glacier? And if the machines never stopped, what would campus look like in a thousand years?
“From participating in the design process months ago to watching crews carefully raise the building from its foundation, our students have been a part of this process all along,” said Director of School, Ashley Waldorf. “They’ve asked hard questions about the decisions involved and the costs and benefits, maintaining active engagement in the decision-making process. This is exactly the kind of real-world education we strive to provide every day.”
