For its past two meetings, the School Building Committee has focused on how to make an 80,000-square-foot building, with all the complex requirements of a school, fit into the center of a small New England town whose historic buildings range from Shaker simplicity to Victorian ornamentation. It’s not an easy task.
Harvard’s Historical Commission is the official group most deeply concerned with preserving the town’s “cultural landscape,” in the phrase used by architect Ron Ostberg, who is a former member of the commission and a current member of the School Building Committee. Ostberg and School Superintendent Linda Dwight presented the latest design drawings of the elementary school’s exterior to a well-attended meeting of the Historical Commission Wednesday, June 20.
It is still an open question whether the new school building does or doesn’t fall under the Historical Commission’s jurisdiction (see article in the May 17 Press). But Dwight emphasized that the building committee, which she chairs, wants to work collaboratively with the commission no matter how that question is resolved.
Adapting traditional shapes, angles, and materials
In a presentation that highlighted architectural elements from some of Harvard’s most treasured buildings, Ostberg showed how the architects sought to incorporate those traditional elements in the new school’s design. “It’s not a matter of replicating a historic building,” he said, but rather of looking for shapes, forms, and textures from older buildings that fit with the new building.
The new school’s west face (closest to Mass. Ave.) is a combination of gray stone, red brick, and glass. Trees and playspaces are also planned but not shown here. (Drawings by Arrowsmith)
The new school’s peaked rooflines repeat the angles of traditional New England architecture, he said, while also concealing the building’s air handlers and protecting them from the weather. To Select Board member Lucy Wallace, who attended the presentation, the angled roof brought to mind New England saltbox houses.
Slides in Ostberg’s presentation showed how banks of vertical windows echoed the window bays in Old Bromfield, while the regularly spaced classroom windows recalled those of the large Shaker dwelling houses. Drawings from the architectural firm Arrowstreet showed a variety of possible window forms, including one topped with an arched lintel that several Historical Commission members praised.
The side of the new building that will face Mass. Ave., shown in the drawing above, was the focus of much discussion at the meeting. It uses building materials with the traditional New England look of brick and stone. The base of the building would be granite, Ostberg said, both for its strength and because it does not wick up water, as brick does. Higher on the walls, he explained, the material that looks like granite would be a manufactured stone product. The building committee and Arrowstreet continue to debate the best balance between brick and stone for this facade.
Vertical windows are a design element that the new school borrows from Old Bromfield.
In response to a question about the durability of manufactured stone, Ostberg said that depended partly on its thickness and also on correct installation. He emphasized there would be a lot of pressure on the builders—from the project manager, the building committee, and the Massachusetts School Building Authority—“to make this a very solid building.”
Reducing the building’s visual size
In sheer size, the new school will be the second-largest building in town. (Only The Bromfield School is larger.) As a result, much of the design effort has gone toward reducing the building’s visual mass. Ostberg pointed out that the school will have two wings connected by a glass section, which reduces the impression of size. (The Harvard Public Library has a similar arrangement, with Old Bromfield and a newer section linked by a glass connector.)
Historical Commission Chair Pam Marston pointed out that the exterior of the library is all red brick, and she questioned the use of two contrasting materials on the new school. Ostberg said Arrowstreet was using the different colors of brick and stone to break up the building’s mass. And commission member David Vannicola said later in the discussion he thought an all-brick building would look “monolithic.”
Comparing the new drawings with the schematic ones available at the time of Annual Town Meeting, Vannicola rendered a terse verdict on the school building’s design. “It has, to my eye, improved,” he said.
Committee hears about landscaping
On several occasions, architects from Arrowstreet have said that drawings like the one above do not represent how the building will look in real life, once it is surrounded by trees, sports fields, and playgrounds. The building’s landscaping came up for discussion the day after the presentation to the Historical Commission, when the full building committee met Thursday, June 21.
Bill Calderwood, chair of the Elm Commission, spoke of the need for public hearings before any protected trees were felled. Although the group he heads is called the Elm Commission, he said, it’s more accurately described as a shade tree commission and works closely with the tree warden.
Calderwood brought up the first-graders’ tree planting project that takes place each year, noting that landscape plans might want to include groups of trees that children could add to over the years. He also urged landscapers to make substantial test holes wherever they want to plant trees, especially in parking lot islands, lest ledge or poor soil kill the expensive trees placed there. And he warned planners not to plant arborvitae as evergreen hedges, because of the area’s voracious deer.
The building project’s landscape architect, Jade Cummings, responded that she wants to work with the Elm Commission, as well as with the Garden Club of Harvard and other local groups who share an interest in the plantings at the new building.
The next meeting of the School Building Committee, which will likely include new design drawings for the interior, is scheduled for July 5 in The Bromfield School library.
