In April trade partners bid on the first phase of the energy net positive Lexington High School replacement in Lexington, Mass. scheduled to start construction this summer.
The 440,000-sq-ft, four story building will consist of three connected L-shaped buildings, which architect Lorraine Finnegan of SMMA calls a “bloom” configuration.
“What I think is really fun about this project is it speaks to every neighborhood around the site,” Finnegan says. “We have three primary entrances….and so it really does speak to each community that it faces.”
The three building wings will surround a central commons which will include a dining hall and serve as the “heart of the school.” The school will accommodate 2,395 students and will be powered by 4 MW of rooftop and ground mount solar panels. There is expected to be enough power to return energy to the grid.
This project involves building on existing athletic fields, and then once that’s constructed, tearing down the existing building and replicating the fields that were displaced as part of the project.
Mike Burton of Dore + Whittier, the owner’s project manager, calls the building replacement process the “flip flop.”
“Most of the projects we do [are] exactly what we’re doing here,” Burton says, “which is, in some cases, building a few feet away.”
The location of the new building relative to the existing building does have one pinch point of about 18-20 feet apart. Burton said mitigations will be put in place to make sure that building occupants are disrupted as little as possible during that period of construction.
“The site itself is a little bit challenging with the geotechnical conditions and some wetlands, but it’s all solvable,” he said. He will work with the local conservation commission and receive an order of conditions which will put rules in place to make sure wetlands are protected.
“We’re navigating pathways through the wetlands to provide educational opportunities for outdoor classrooms, so environmental science classrooms can go out there and [observe].”
It will be an all electric building that utilizes a hybrid HVAC system, with ground source heat pumps and air source heat pumps.
“This is a progressive town educationally,” said Finnegan. “They also are progressive with respect to sustainability.”
SMMA will still be drawing designs until May of 2027, but they are doing early release packages to take certain scopes of work out of the overall design so they can begin working sooner. Turner Construction will be working with the project team to procure subcontractors. The site enabling package will come out in April. In September the team will start foundations and steel work. The final guaranteed maximum price is scheduled sometime in spring of 2027.
Construction is scheduled to be completed by December of 2030.
Source: www.enr.com
