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Date: 10/18/2022
HOLYOKE – Updates on the potential new middle school process were provided by the School Building Committee during their Oct. 6 meeting.
Project Manager Margaret Wood shared updates on the potential new school building as the process is formally in motion. She explained that the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) requires the city to go through a competitive process and in this case are requiring the School Building Committee to look at a set of model school proposals from different architects who have done school building projects.
At the same time, they are expected to be looking at the Jones Whitsett Architects design done in the previous iteration of the city trying to secure a new school building prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
Wood further explained that the model school in this process that the city is looking to adapt to their own has been identified as one having flexibility. According to past projects on the MSBA website, they look for buildings that have flexibility to increase or decrease the number of classrooms. The program was set up this way to have architects apply into the program with different takes on what could work.
The MSBA has identified eight potential schools from previous projects in the state for Holyoke to consider. There are four different designers between the eight potential options brought to the School Building Committee.
According to Wood, DiNisco Design has already reached out and felt their two options being shown (both elementary school buildings) would be difficult to translate into the middle school solution Holyoke is currently looking for. The new school building would be a middle school and would help play into the district’s rezoning of schools to balance out grade configurations between schools.
The three remaining designers that will have their work reviewed by the committee are Flansburgh Architects, Mount Vernon Group Architects and Raymond Design Associates. Each designer that will be considered has two previous projects for the School Building Committee to review before they meet with the design candidates during their Nov. 17 meeting.
“The process is all done in public. We are there to listen as the ears of the community.” said Wood. “It’s a good process for the committee to understand the process and come up with questions and focus on different areas. Bring your best listening ears to the interview.”
The school Holyoke is looking to add must meet a handful of questions that need answers according to the MSBA. Some of these questions include how a designer would adapt to the site of the project, including conceptual floor plan layouts, strengths and challenges of the project, cost estimates and a few other general questions surrounding the project.
One dilemma about this current process according to Wood is that the MSBA does not have middle school models in their portfolio and are asking these designers to take a former design and convey it into a Middle School environment. Outside of DiNisco Design, the other three designers have yet to confirm if they will participate in the project. If they do, their work will be reviewed by the committee before an interview portion of the process that will come during the committee’s Nov. 17 meeting.
“It remains to be seen whether all of them will participate. It’s really going to be interesting to see. Definitely a somewhat unusual situation,” Wood said.