The existing Marlborough school was such a poorly built structure, and was located on such a limited site that the school board opted to construct a new state-of-the-art school on another site in the village. After seven unsuccessful vote attempts at town meeting, our firm was brought on board, and the project was approved the following spring.

The new school is designed to house 250 students in grades K-8, and thus is divided into two areas: a lower floor for kindergarten and elementary students, and an upper floor for middle schoolers. The middle school area is given its own identity by means of a generous team area surrounded by lockers, general classrooms, a science lab, a small group work room, and toilets. The school incorporates the latest technologies, both in the classrooms with data projectors linked to smart boards, and in the building systems, with a wood pellet heating system. As with all our projects, we went to great efforts to preserve several mature catalpa trees on the site, which give the school a sense of history and permanence.

Favorable bids have allowed the school district to upgrade a number of building elements and finishes, which will increase longevity and lower maintenance costs over the life of the building. The school features concrete block and brick exterior cavity walls, a SO-year shingle and copper roof, and top quality aluminum windows with a 70% kynar baked-on finish. This structure is designed using the most durable, attractive, simple, sustainable materials possible, and will provide the school district with a functional, trouble-free building for decades to come.

Sustainable building features include the renewable-fuel wood pellet heating plant, high-efficiency indirect lighting, high-efficiency heat exchangers in the mechanical system, 6″ of rigid roof insulation, reflective TPO roofing, low-e window glass, low flow plumbing fixtures, low voe materials, and the use of recycling practices during construction.

We assisted the school district in obtaining federal grants to install an array of photovoltaic solor panels on the site to provide electricity to the school. This system is currently under design, and is scheduled to be installed in the summer of 2011.