School may be out for the summer, but the project team is hard at work advancing design of our next new school building at 115 Sycamore Street. 

Locations of soil borings/geotechnical investigations at the 115 Sycamore Street site. This work provides information about the character of the underlying soil/rock that helps inform design.

Among the work presented at this month’s school building committee was a review of how the team is working to refine design options based on both community feedback and our increasing understanding of the site, including “daylighting” studies that show the anticipated quality of natural light in classrooms (more on that in this month’s Zoom-In) as well as the results of geotechnical investigations that shed light (figuratively) on the underlying soil.

This work is part of the development of our next submission to the state, the Preferred Schematic Report (PSR), in which we’ll convey a final preferred option for the project. Discussion of the PSR will take place next during month's School Building Committee (SBC) and School Committee meetings. Submission of the PSR is planned for the late August. 

This month's newsletter:

• Design Process/MSBA Update - Refining Design Options + Preparing the PSR
• Community Design Workshop #3 - Designing for Neurodiversity
• Zoom-in: Daylight

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at newschool@somervillema.gov. 

Refining Design Options

Project architects from Perkins Eastman presented refined design options that took into account a number of key factors—including feedback to move more of the building toward Medford Street to maximize the open space next to Evergreen Avenue, plan for bedrock identified in the northwestern corner of the site, and incorporate the results of studying the expected natural light in classroom spaces.  

Rendering of a design option for new school building discussing during July's School Building Committee meeting.
Watch the recording or view the slides here to learn more.

The project team and SBC members will continue to evaluate these design options as work on the PSR moves toward a targeted submission late next month.  

HVAC Life Cycle Costs

As a follow-up to last months’ discussion of various options for HVAC heating and cooling systems under consideration for the building, mechanical engineering consultants discussed costs of each proposed system. Among the factors considered were total energy usage, initial installation and replacement costs, as well as available sustainability incentives/tax credits.  

In late June, the project team hosted a virtual community workshop on designing for neurodiversity in our new school building.

Overview of principles of universal design as presented during the 6/23 workshop.

The workshop began with an overview of universal design principles as well as strategies for designing for neurodiverse student populations and examples from other school buildings before opening up for Q&A and community feedback. 

The feedback gathered will be used by the City’s project team and architects to help inform design work moving forward. 

A recording of the presentation is available on the City's Youtube channel.

Community members are invited to provide their feedback and priorities for the new school building at any time by emailing newschool@somervillema.gov. 

Images from solar radiation study discussed during June's School Building Committee meeting.

The design team seeks to supply classrooms with ample natural light while avoiding uncomfortable and distracting glare.

As a result of these studies, the team identified a need to improve the quality of light in proposed lower level pre-k/k classrooms.

At this month’s SBC meeting the team highlighted how the design could evolve and the position of classrooms could shift to invite higher quality light into the space.