When students and staff return to the reported $211 million John Pierce School in Brookline, Mass., in September 2027, the building materials they touch inside and outside the school will meet the highest health standards.
Boston-based design firm Sasaki partnered with Harvard University’s Office of Sustainability to support procurement of green materials for the 172,300-gross-square-foot school project that includes a 75,300-gross-square-foot underground parking garage.
Sasaki architect and sustainability coordinator Alison Nash, who is working on the project with design firm MDS/Miller Dyer Spears, says the project team is “going above and beyond” by choosing materials with low-volatile organic compounds while doing everything possible to avoid so-called “forever chemicals,” known as PFAS substances, in the materials selected.
“There are literally tens of thousands of them [PFAS]” says Nash, “and unless you have an advanced degree … you won’t really know, is this a chemical forever?”
The new Pierce School will include a redesigned drop-off area and entrance.
Courtesy of Sasaki
Since this is a public project, Sasaki and MDS needed to find three equals for each material, which is a challenge in an industry that is still maturing in this regard.
“Having the Harvard researchers partner with us was very important, because they could help investigate some of the [chemical] categories where it was more difficult to find three alike,” says Sarah Lesher, director of interior design at MDS.
Particular attention was paid to the materials that the students come into contact with, such as the playground surface. The team worked to find a product that didn’t include recycled tired rubber, which often has chemicals in the oven. They found a manufacturer who provided a letter stating that the product would not include tire rubber.
Lesher says some of the PFAS-free products are more expensive, but many are more durable. For example, linoleum flooring is durable and has a 30-year warranty, while VCT flooring requires annual maintenance.
Nash said the design team’s partnership with Harvard, which was facilitated by the city of Brookline’s PFAS Committee, will help the Massachusetts School Building Authority and other states replicate their process.
The three-story LEED-certified elementary and middle school will serve 725 students on the dense urban site of the former Pierce School building in Brookline Village.
The facility will be powered, in part, by geothermal energy to help meet the city’s goal of being carbon neutral by 2050. The team drilled geothermal wells in the park across from the project.
Photo courtesy of Consigli Construction Co. Inc.
“One of the main challenges of this project has been managing construction in a dense and very active urban environment,” a Consigli spokesperson said in an email to ENR. “From coordinating road closures and utility work to carefully sequencing deliveries, demolition and excavation activities, the team has taken a very collaborative and thoughtful approach to maintaining safe access and minimizing disruption in a busy neighborhood environment.”
The facility will be powered, in part, by solar and geothermal energy to help meet the city’s goal of being carbon neutral by 2050.
The building will feature a ground source system for efficient heating and cooling, a displacement ventilation system for occupant comfort, and a passive house-level envelope design in terms of tightness and insulation. On his website, Sasaki says that “Energy modeling, embodied carbon modeling, light and shade studies, and outdoor thermal comfort modeling were integral to the design workflow. This process informed the selection of the preferred option and shaped the design of the new school.”
The design also calls for keeping the original four-room Pierce School building, built in 1855 and expanded in 1904, intact and tying it into the new buildings. Preserving a historic structure and building something new directly next to it required working with historic preservation officers and taking extra steps to protect the existing building.
“Careful monitoring and structural support has been required from the outset, particularly during demolition and excavation activities, to ensure the historic building remains stable and protected at all times,” Consigli’s spokesman said.
A particular challenge was working with the original stone foundation of the historic building, which was not waterproof.
“We had to excavate around the entire perimeter of the historic structure and then form concrete to encapsulate the existing foundations, which allowed us to create a modern waterproofing barrier while preserving the integrity of the original building,” Consigli’s spokesman said.
Another goal of the project was “integration with the broader fabric of the city of Brookline, including the town hall, the library and the sports fields,” says Vinicius Gorgati, director of Sasaki. The school sits on a slope that connects the upper civic plaza to the sports fields, and has historically been more of an impediment to accessibility than a link between the two areas, he says.
There is also a significant drop from the top of the school to the bottom. And it’s on Harvard Avenue, which is a busy thoroughfare.
The 172,300-gross-square-foot school project that includes a 75,300-gross-square-foot underground parking garage will serve 725 students on the dense urban site of the former Pierce School building in Brookline Village.
Photo by Justin Rice/ENR
“From the beginning…our strategy was to create a linear park that connects [the] upper plateau and lower plateau, creating a community link, accessible through ramps and other gardening strategies, so that day after day, you can connect from the upper plateau, the civic plateau, to the school. [and] through the linear green to the fields and courts,” says Gorgati.
The architects made sure to design the school in a way that accommodated the pedestrian traffic in the community.
“And the beauty is that most students come to school on foot, and they come from different directions… So we created two or three immediate connection points that can be monitored and used, you know, intelligently by the school itself,” says Gorgati.
Other priorities were making sure the greater Brookline community could feel connected to the building.
“When you walk through the building, there is school activity [that is] doable for you as a citizen, as someone who goes to school … as opposed to the more anonymous, introspective design that informed schools of years past.”
The building is currently under construction, with the roof and exterior cladding nearing completion, and mechanical, electrical and plumbing works. Exterior brick work will begin shortly after the building closure is completed.
The project remains on budget and on schedule.
