An Extensive and Attractive Redevelopment of the Schools and Accompanying Community Complex. by Andrew Arbaugh, Copley Wolff
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, King Open elementary school and Cambridge Street Upper middle school were once housed in the same building. When an overhaul of the location was budgeted, landscape architectural firm Copley Wolff helped create contemporary, striking accommodations that would again accommodate both schools, and turn them into Massachusetts' largest school to achieve both Net Zero Emissions and LEED v.4 Platinum certification. To facilitate this, there is a massive array of integrated solar panels on the roof, and manmade geothermal wells where every 20' on a grid a well was drilled 100' down to tap into the heat found there. Pipes bring this energy and heat into the building. This first required excavating 6' of the existing ground except for around a few major trees.
The new building for the King Open School and the Cambridge Street Upper School is set 3' higher than the streetscape to protect against intermittent flooding. The curves of the building and the landscape design are meant partially to commemorate this historic sycamore tree, which was one that had its root zone preserved. Removable bollards included stainless steel models (35-1/2" tall x 4-1/2" body diameter x 6-1/2" base diameter).
Valente Plaza was elevated to provide separation from the adjacent school landscapes and this branch of the local public library. Curved seat walls built with concrete emphasize the connection between the architecture and the landscape. The original design included permeable pavers but the city insisted on concrete. Some scoring and finishing were allowed to enhance the surface. In addition, quotes were etched into the sidewalk (inset) The inscription reads: Now I walk this sidewalk/ no longer the boy/ they chased home-/ fear beating in my throat/ wind burning in my eyes./ Today I am a man,/ reaching to take his hand,/ the boy I was/ walking with me/ finally safe and free. - Jeffrey Walker 2019. At the far left is Cambridge St. which was rebuilt as part of the project. The new brickwork extended an existing detail that runs up and down Cambridge Street. The lighting was the city of Cambridge's standard as specified by its civil engineer. On the plaza are maple trees. The tree to the far right is a tulip tree. The handrail is custom built.
Educational ecology is woven throughout the site. Examples include the use of pollinator gardens, infiltration cells, and a runoff wall that allows students to "feed" the raingarden. Ornamental grasses included Hakonechloa Mix (Japanese Forest Grass Mix), Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Little Bunny' (Little Bunny Fountain Grass), Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hamln' (Hameln Fountain Grass), and Deschampsia cespitosa 'Goldtau' (Goldtau Tufted Hairgrass). The ring bike rack from Landscape Forms has an electro polished, stainless-steel finish.
Between the school buildings is an area with hay scented ferns, salvaged boulders, and a fieldstone pathway. The light poles and fixtures were specified by the project's lighting designer. To the left are pin oaks, to the right is a serviceberry tree. The city of Cambridge has a one-to-one tree replacement policy so before the design team started the project, they had to do a thorough analysis of all the trees on the site and calculate the total caliper of the trees they'd be removing to make sure they left the site with the same total caliper. Andrew Arbaugh, the principal in charge of the project noted that this part "was challenging because there was a high number of trees and some of the trees were very large. (For instance) we are taking out an 18" caliper tree, we have to replace it with six 3" caliper trees. But there was only so much surface area that we could plant on, especially with the geothermal wells that are underneath almost the entire site."
The replacement basketball courts and outdoor exercise equipment on the south side of the school building function as an extension of Donnelly Park and are open to the community as well as students. The court's surface is asphalt covered with an acrylic-based, all-weather recreational coating. The color scheme was designed to complement the blue of the two play areas in the background and the gray of the path between these areas.
The existing library garden was redesigned. Sculptural "cat" benches that were public art from the original garden were salvaged and reused in the new space. Plantings throughout the site included Hedera helix (English Ivy), Carex pensylvanica (Penn Sedge), Astilbe x arendsii 'Bridal Veil' (Bridal Veil Astilbe), Athyrium filix-femina (Lady Fern), Alchemila mollis (Lady's Mantle), Perovskia atriplicifolia 'Little Spire' (Little Spire Russian Sage), among a variety of other plants.
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In Cambridge, Massachusetts, King Open elementary school and Cambridge Street Upper middle school were once housed in the same building. When an overhaul of the location was budgeted, landscape architectural firm Copley Wolff helped create contemporary, striking accommodations that would again accommodate both schools, and turn them into Massachusetts' largest school to achieve both Net Zero Emissions and LEED v.4 Platinum certification. To facilitate this, there is a massive array of integrated solar panels on the roof, and manmade geothermal wells where every 20' on a grid a well was drilled 100' down to tap into the heat found there. Pipes bring this energy and heat into the building. This first required excavating 6' of the existing ground except for around a few major trees.
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The new building for the King Open School and the Cambridge Street Upper School is set 3' higher than the streetscape to protect against intermittent flooding. The curves of the building and the landscape design are meant partially to commemorate this historic sycamore tree, which was one that had its root zone preserved. Removable bollards included stainless steel models (35-1/2" tall x 4-1/2" body diameter x 6-1/2" base diameter).
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Valente Plaza was elevated to provide separation from the adjacent school landscapes and this branch of the local public library. Curved seat walls built with concrete emphasize the connection between the architecture and the landscape. The original design included permeable pavers but the city insisted on concrete. Some scoring and finishing were allowed to enhance the surface. In addition, quotes were etched into the sidewalk (inset) The inscription reads: Now I walk this sidewalk/ no longer the boy/ they chased home-/ fear beating in my throat/ wind burning in my eyes./ Today I am a man,/ reaching to take his hand,/ the boy I was/ walking with me/ finally safe and free. - Jeffrey Walker 2019. At the far left is Cambridge St. which was rebuilt as part of the project. The new brickwork extended an existing detail that runs up and down Cambridge Street. The lighting was the city of Cambridge's standard as specified by its civil engineer. On the plaza are maple trees. The tree to the far right is a tulip tree. The handrail is custom built.
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Educational ecology is woven throughout the site. Examples include the use of pollinator gardens, infiltration cells, and a runoff wall that allows students to "feed" the raingarden. Ornamental grasses included Hakonechloa Mix (Japanese Forest Grass Mix), Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Little Bunny' (Little Bunny Fountain Grass), Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hamln' (Hameln Fountain Grass), and Deschampsia cespitosa 'Goldtau' (Goldtau Tufted Hairgrass). The ring bike rack from Landscape Forms has an electro polished, stainless-steel finish.
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Between the school buildings is an area with hay scented ferns, salvaged boulders, and a fieldstone pathway. The light poles and fixtures were specified by the project's lighting designer. To the left are pin oaks, to the right is a serviceberry tree. The city of Cambridge has a one-to-one tree replacement policy so before the design team started the project, they had to do a thorough analysis of all the trees on the site and calculate the total caliper of the trees they'd be removing to make sure they left the site with the same total caliper. Andrew Arbaugh, the principal in charge of the project noted that this part "was challenging because there was a high number of trees and some of the trees were very large. (For instance) we are taking out an 18" caliper tree, we have to replace it with six 3" caliper trees. But there was only so much surface area that we could plant on, especially with the geothermal wells that are underneath almost the entire site."
6 / 7
The replacement basketball courts and outdoor exercise equipment on the south side of the school building function as an extension of Donnelly Park and are open to the community as well as students. The court's surface is asphalt covered with an acrylic-based, all-weather recreational coating. The color scheme was designed to complement the blue of the two play areas in the background and the gray of the path between these areas.
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The existing library garden was redesigned. Sculptural "cat" benches that were public art from the original garden were salvaged and reused in the new space. Plantings throughout the site included Hedera helix (English Ivy), Carex pensylvanica (Penn Sedge), Astilbe x arendsii 'Bridal Veil' (Bridal Veil Astilbe), Athyrium filix-femina (Lady Fern), Alchemila mollis (Lady's Mantle), Perovskia atriplicifolia 'Little Spire' (Little Spire Russian Sage), among a variety of other plants.
A six-acre site in the Wellington-Harrington neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the home of two schools: the King Open (elementary) School and Cambridge Street Upper (middle) School. The existing location was dominated by a low-slung 1950s building which housed the two separate schools. The campus also contained a branch of the Cambridge Public Library and a public pool complex. Landscape architectural firm Copley Wolff was selected as part of a team that accomplished an extensive and attractive redevelopment of the schools and accompanying community complex.
The design team collaborated with the City of Cambridge to reconceptualize the site towards the following goals:
???,??? Replace and expand the existing school, library, and pool program while adding a headquarters for the Cambridge Public Schools, a public pre-school, and new playgrounds for the adjacent Frisoli Community Center/Head
Start Pre-School
???,??? Increase the amount of on-site open space and create a green connection that extends what is known as Donnelly Field to Cambridge Street
???,??? Create what would be the largest school in Massachusetts to achieve both Net Zero Emissions and LEED v.4 Platinum certification
Copley Wolff worked with the architect, civil engineer, and geothermal engineer to develop a massive and open space strategy that would accommodate the required architectural programming and produce close to an acre of additional publicly accessible open space.
Initial coordination included the siting of over 200 geothermal wells on a 20' x 20' grid beneath most of the open space. The landscape architect coordinated this to ensure the grid would not come in conflict with proposed site walls, play equipment footings, trees, and rain gardens. Most importantly, the landscape architect advocated that the grid be excluded from the root zone of a major, mature sycamore on Cambridge Street.
Preservation of this landmark tree became a design driver. The project team hired an arborist to provide monthly evaluations and maintenance of the sycamore (and four additional mature honey locusts that formed an all???(C)e on Willow Street) throughout the duration of the three-year construction period. Both the landscape design and architecture were coordinated to preserve the root zone and position the Sycamore at the center of the Cambridge Street landscape design.
The completed project incorporates 147 new trees into a series of landscape spaces that surround and flow through the new building.
The Plazas
King Open Entry Plaza and Cambridge Street Upper School Plaza are landscaped entries for the two "schools within a school." They were designed to give each school its own identity. The entries to the plazas are set at elevation 23.0 to withstand a projected 100-year flood stage associated with climate change.
Valente Plaza is a formal extension of the library set at a higher elevation to separate it from the adjacent school entries. This plaza includes spaces for outdoor caf???(C) tables (to be provided post-COVID) and a replacement streetside bocce court.
The Library Garden is an update of the original, much-loved children's story garden at the corner of Cambridge and Berkshire. The new garden recreates the original plant palette and returns sculptural "cat benches" while integrating a major subsurface infiltration chamber.
The Playgrounds
Five individual playgrounds were designed and constructed for different age groups. The King Open Playground and the Frisoli playground is for the Pre-K kids. There is also one designated for children in kindergarten and another for those in elementary school. The Cambridge Street Upper School Playground is meant for middle school students.
Since the playgrounds are open to the public outside school hours, they were positioned in two clusters to allow for easier use across age ranges while school is not in session.
Other Outdoor Spaces
The South Courtyard was constructed over a 30,000-gallon tank which collects rainwater from the roof for irrigation and toilet flushing. One hundred percent of the roof water is retained.
At the center of the campus is an Outdoor Classroom that functions as a flexible multi-use space for full-grade assemblies, individual classes, and spill-out from the adjacent cafeteria. The space includes tiered seating, sloped turf gathering space, garden beds (with integrated storage/seating) and a 900-square-foot raingarden with three bridge crossings.
Playground Equipment
Kompan provided most of the play assemblies. On the pre-K playgrounds, their custom Mega Tower, Quad Tower, Daisy and Spinner Bowl was installed. The kindergarten play area included the Adara II and the Supernova. The Net Twister and Bloqx 3 were featured on the grades 1-5 playground. The middle school area offered the older kids a fitness structure with kettle bells, the Suspension Trainer and the Multi Net Link.
Amenities and Accessories
Two types of tree grates were specified, both from Urban Accessories - a 4'x8" fan grey iron in raw finish model, and a 4'x4" fan grey iron in raw finish model. Tree aeration grates were standard ADA 8" square proving frames with tamper/theft resistant fasteners.
Bicycle racks included surface-mounted Anova circle stainless steel models, Landscape Forms' ring bike racks with electro polished stainless-steel finishes and Belson Outdoors' square tubing, surface mount, round flange styles in electro polished stainless-steel finishes.
High capacity (49.8" h x 50.6" w x 26.8" depth) surface mounted, double station trash receptacles from BigBelly were specified along with two types of removable bollards: the r-8464 stainless steel model (35-1/2" h x 4-1/2" body diameter x 6-1/2" base diameter), and the r-7902 model, steel with a Bengal Silver finish (36" h x 4-1/3" body diameter x 4-1/3" base diameter).
Also included were core surface mounted solar chargers.
"The campus has transformed the streetscape along [Cambridge] Street," relates James Maloney, COO, Cambridge Public Schools, "highlighting the exterior grounds as a place for passersby to stop and soak up the fresh air and enjoy the beautiful landscape."
TEAM LIST
Landscape Architect: Copley Wolff
Architects: Arrowstreet Architecture & Design, and William Rawn Associates
Surveyors: Feldman Land Surveyors
Structural Engineering: LeMessurier Consultants
Traffic Engineering: Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc.
LEED Consultant: Soden Sustainability Consulting
Pool Contractor: Aquatic Design Group
Garcia Galuska Desousa Consulting Engineers Inc,
Nitsch Engineering,
AKF Group LLC/ In- Posse,
RW Sullivan Engineering
Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design
Acentech
Kalin Associates Inc.
Fuss & O' Nell Enviroscience
Crabtree Mcgrath Associates, Inc.
Campbell- McCabe Inc.
Barbizon Light of New England
Point Line Space Inc.
Library Planning Associates, Inc.
CDM Smith
Stephen Turner Inc.
