Boston – Copley Wolff Design Group’s educational project experience is wide ranging and extensive. Since 1991, CWDG has created unique public spaces associated with public and private educational institutions including colleges, private schools, libraries, research facilities, laboratories and museums.
CWDG has developed campus master plans and designed important academic spaces for some of New England’s finest academic institutions. Design work includes sites around existing buildings, building additions, common open spaces, quadrangles, campus circulation patterns, new buildings, dorms, dining halls, student gathering spaces, sitting areas, outdoor classrooms, and campus entry ways. A focus on proper site enhancement and emphasis on the public realm, be it for an elementary school or a college campus, can give significant benefits to students, administrators and visitors.
Our experience has shown that consistent and well designed public realm adds value and creates a sense of identity for campuses and schools. Using this overarching philosophy, CWDG is undertaking several new academic projects including elementary, secondary and university-level work.
DCAM has contracted a new charter school, located high on a scenic hilltop overlooking the downtown in historic Lynn, Mass. The new Kipp Academy Lynn Charter School will consist of a high school wing, middle school wing, cafeteria, gymnasium, and administrative offices and will be a highly-visible landmark within the city limits. Programming for the site includes an outdoor learning amphitheater, spill out cafeteria space, separated bus and vehicular traffic and drop-offs and a new entry plaza.
CWDG is working with Arrowstreet, architect for the new Academy, to design the building and the site to best take advantage of the spectacular views from the site toward Boston’s skyline and Nahant Bay. Green techniques such as bioswales and cisterns will be used to mitigate high runoff volumes generated due to the site’s consistently shallow bedrock. The school is scheduled for completion in late Spring 2011.
Copley Wolff Design Group is also providing schematic landscape design for the renovation and expansion of Methuen High School in Methuen. Improvements will include a new bus drop-off area with bollard lighting for enhanced safety and way-finding. Seat walls will help define the space while allowing areas for students waiting for the bus to gather. CWDG designed a main pedestrian exterior corridor designed to match the interior lobby flooring – adding a cohesive, way-finding element to the school entrance. Adjacent to the walk is an undulating integrally colored concrete seat wall, which encases a bed of native perennials and shrubs along the building face, softening the hardscape and providing a welcoming entrance. The seat wall will include lighting that will help to illuminate the path along with ambient light from the building.
Focusing on enhancing the natural environment for the students, an outdoor dining terrace will be located adjacent to the interior cafeteria. This new space will overlook a grove of new and existing canopy trees and native understory shrubs and will provide a peaceful, contemplative area for study and dining. An outdoor display/work space will be provided adjacent to the Art classrooms and will further enhance the “bringing the outside in” theme for the school. A ten-foot river rock path will informally delineate the space while providing an area for students to show off some of their work. In addition to amenities for high schools students, a Tot Lot will be added adjacent to the existing academic wing which will service the on-site Methuen “Rangerland” daycare program.
On the higher-level education front, CWDG continues to add to its collegiate-level project portfolio and is currently working on the redesign and beautification of three high-visibility courtyards at the University of Connecticut, Storrs campus. Using the University’s Landscape Master Plan as a guide, these “fast-track” projects will include designs that serve to unify courtyard spaces that connect a variety of campus buildings, beautify with the installation of large canopy trees and screen unsightly building loading and structural features. New and existing art, fountains and sculpture will be incorporated into a variety of areas and new safety site lighting will beautify each of the courtyards. New site furniture – seatwalls, bike racks, benches, trash and recycling receptacles and bollards will unite the spaces and serve as cohesive entities for the overall assignment. These new spaces will provide a beautiful new environment for students, faculty and campus visitors.
Tracy Smith is Director of Marketing for Copley Wolff Design Group.