The Lincoln Squirrel – News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

Gropius House bathroom competition announces a winner

The current Gropius House “restroom” next to the visitors’ center (top), and a drawing of “One Bathroom After Another.” (Photos courtesy Historic New England)

“One Bathroom After Another” is the winning entry in the Historic New England design competition to “reimagine the visitor experience of Gropius House” by adding an accessible permanent public restroom close to the visitors’ center.

Since it became open to the public 45 years ago, the only restroom for Gropius House visitors has been a porta-potty. The new structure will address that need and will “also play a critical role in creating a sense of arrival for visitors to the site and framing the viewshed to the main house,” HNE said in a release.

The winning proposal by architectural designer Isabel Strauss was selected from more than 280 submissions received from 40 countries across six continents. Nearly a quarter of entries came from outside Europe and North America. “Strauss’ proposal introduces a twin volume that echoes the form of the existing garage, while differentiating it through material and orientation, to create a clear, yet contextually sensitive, addition to the site,” the release says.

“My design starts with what is already here, rather than imposing a completely new aesthetic, and draws on vernacular materials and reinterprets them through a contemporary lens. This project, in the spirit of the Bauhaus, uses common materials in new ways to create something that feels both of its time and as though it could have always been here,” Strauss said.

Strauss is assistant professor of architecture at Smith College. Previously, she was a curatorial contractor at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, where she assisted in collecting and exhibition projects related to architecture and design.

“Isabel Strauss’s proposal stood out as both deeply thoughtful and emotional — a quiet approach grounded in her nuanced reading of the site’s iconography, and one that also proved to be among the most buildable,” said Vin Cipolla, President and CEO of Historic New England.

The other shortlisted teams include AUYON BACHAR, based in Los Angeles; Payette (Boston); Tomas Sachanowicz and Monika Puchala (Szczecin, Poland); and Mohsen Laei (Tehran, Iran). AUYON BACHAR reimagined the existing garage as a contemporary welcome center with an integrated restroom addition and distinctive glass block façade, while Payette conceived the restroom as a precise architectural instrument within the landscape, contrasting planar and curved geometries to guide arrival and movement. Sachanowicz and Puchala proposed a restrained intervention that extends the site’s existing stone wall to enclose the restroom. Laei’s proposal offered a compact, efficient design focused on functional performance, with a strong connection to the surrounding environment.

Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus and one of the most influential architects of the 20th century, designed the home in 1938 as his family residence while teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Conceived as both a living space and a teaching tool, Gropius House exemplifies Bauhaus principles of functional design while responding to the surrounding New England landscape. In 1979, Gropius’s wife Ise donated the property — complete with its original furnishings, artwork, and personal belongings — to Historic New England. The house opened to the public in 1984 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000. Today, it is among the most visited sites under Historic New England’s stewardship.

The submissions were reviewed by a jury including Antoine Picon (Harvard Graduate School of Design), Nader Tehrani (NADAAA), Philip Kennicott (the Washington Post), Suzanne Stephens (Architectural Record) and Tanja Hwang (Museum of Modern Art).

“Historic New England is committed to building a permanent public restroom at Gropius House in the coming years, with timing dependent on funding,” the release said. The organization also plans to present the finalists’ designs in a public exhibition. The five finalist proposals will ultimately become part of the organization’s permanent archives, and Historic New England is also exploring opportunities for publication.

Legal notice: Historic District Commission (19 Brooks Rd)

LEGAL NOTICE — HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION

The Historic District Commission will hold a virtual online public hearing at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, to consider the application of Brian and Kimberly Jalet, 19 Brooks Rd., M/P 112-34-0 to rebuild a garage and add an apartment above. Anyone wishing to be heard on this matter should be present at the designated time and place.

Time: May 12, 2026 7:30 PM

Join Zoom Meeting   (Meeting ID: 983 9661 4379, Password: 167620)

Note that legal notices often must be posted twice by law. For previous legal notices and details on how to submit a legal notice to the Lincoln Squirrel, click here.

Cereal boxes go tumbling down at school to benefit food pantry

Lincoln School students with some of the cereal boxes they collected. (Photo courtesy Patti Caira)

Hundreds of boxes cascaded down in an exciting sequence in the third year of Cereal Dominoes at the Lincoln School recently.

Earlier in the year, students in grades K-4 learned about food insecurity through the book Maddi’s Fridge. This spring, they collected and brought in 480 boxes of cold cereal (a new record) to benefit the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry of Lincoln and Weston after teachers put out the call and even created a QR code so parents could order cereal and have it shipped directly to the food pantry.

The cereal boxes ready to topple. (Photo courtesy Patti Caira)

Teachers piled up the boxes in classrooms and the kids used their math skills by adding up how many boxes were being collected by each class. On the big day (with help from some parents), teacher Nicole McDonagh coordinated the task of lining up the hundreds of boxes in a circuitous route in the gym. Scattered among them were several giant-size display boxes that substitute teacher Patti Caira borrowed from Market Basket.

As the kids watched, the first box was tipped over, and down they all went (see video). The kids cheered excitedly, and at least one of then shouted, “That’s the box I donated!” according to kindergarten teacher Rachel Goldner.

Caira, who also volunteers at the food pantry, got the idea to bring the event to Lincoln after seeing something similar on TV several years ago. She tracked down the two teachers from Michigan who appeared on the program and reached out to them for advice.

Teachers Patty Caira, Rachel Goldner, and Nicole McDonagh in front of the cereal box dominoes. (Photo courtesy Patti Caira)

“It’s made such a difference at the food pantry. They’re now set through fall for cereal,” Caira said, noting that clients’ children don’t get meals at school over summer break, “and a bowl of cereal is a treat for breakfast and lunch.”

This is not the first public project the school has organized. One group did a coin drive to raise $414 for the World Wildlife Fund. “You should have seen the bank when we came in with all those coins,” said Principal Sarah Collmer.

Other efforts such as composting and donating unopened prepackaged food such as applesauce container to Food Link have been a great success — cafeteria trash went from 22 barrels to just two barrels over a period of time, said McDonagh, who is also one of the school’s Green Team leads.

Old Town Hall Corp. to hold annual meeting

The Old Town Hall in the 1960s, complete with gas pumps.

The Lincoln Old Town Hall Corp. will hold its annual meeting on Wednesday, May 20, at 7:00pm in the meeting room on the building’s second floor. The meeting is open to the public.

At the meeting, the executive board will discuss finances, accomplishments over the past two years, executive board elections, ways to make it more apparent that they are not affiliated with the town of Lincoln, and long-range projects.
 
The organization’s mission is to maintain and preserve the Old Town Hall, which in on the National and Massachusetts Registers of Historic Places and celebrated its 175th anniversary two years ago. It rents space to the Little General Store, the post office, and four other tenants on the second floor. As part of her agreement, Little General Store owner Lis Herbert also manages the Old Town Hall Exchange, which sells artisanal crafts and antiques consigned to the Exchange to benefit both consignor and the Old Town Hall.
 
The Lincoln Old Town Hall Corp. executive board members are Richard McQuaid (president), Libby Maynard (clerk), Margaret Harding (treasurer), Herbert, and Jane O’Rourke. Questions? Email corp@lincolnoldtownhall.org.

Property sales in February 2026

28 Blueberry Lane — Joel S. Greenberger to Raz and Shani Davidyan for $1,885,000 (February 2)

88 Winter St. — Jeffrey S. Bennett to Dirk Gevers and Geraldine Paulus for $2,350,000 (February 5)

2 Tracey’s Corner — 2 Tracey’s Corner LLC to Michael and Luana McLagan for $732,000 (February 13)

 

News acorns

Mt. Misery parking lot closure

The Mt. Misery main parking lot will be intermittently closed from Tuesday to Thursday, May 5–7 for maintenance. Alternative parking locations to access the Mount Misery trails include the overflow and canoe lot near Lee’s Bridge, designated road shoulder parking off Route 117, and the road shoulder of Old Concord Road near Lindentree Farm. Questions? Email the Lincoln Conservation Department at conservation@lincolnma.gov.

Author talk: “Crimson Courageous”

On Thursday, May 14 at 6:30pm in the library’s Tarbell Room, join local author Christine Omodi-Engola in a reading and discussion of her poetry book Crimson Courageous, an unflinching look at modern life in the world of work and rural America. The heart of the book focuses on the author’s background with a Catholic upbringing, plus historical roots on the African continent. No registration required.

Ten-year-old wins gold in taekwondo

Everly Cotterpong of Lincoln was one of 12 Achieve Taekwondo students from eastern Massachusetts won competitive medals in the April 12 USA Taekwondo Massachusetts State Championship. Ten-year-old Everly, Achieve Taekwondo’s youngest competitor, won gold in her Traditional Poomsae division. Poomsae, or forms, are sets of choreographed Taekwondo movements that simulate combat and develop skills like balance, timing, and technique.

John Anthony Rizzo

Smithsonian show includes work by Lincoln photographer

Photographer John Anthony Rizzo of Lincoln has been selected for inclusion in an upcoming exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery. “Much Here is Beautiful: Photography Surveys of the U.S. Bicentennial” will open in September 2026 and run until April 2027. A selection of Rizzo’s work will be featured in the exhibition and catalogue and remain in the Smithsonian’s permanent collection. Rizzo’s inclusion in the exhibition marks a notable recognition of his longstanding engagement with American life, culture, and landscape through photography. The work was selected from the 1983 NEA-funded grant “The Leather District and Fort Point Channel: A Boston Photo Documentary” project. He was one of six photographers selected by the Massachusetts Council on Arts and Humanities to document Boston’s waterfront.

Community Center to have a rain garden

An architect’s rendition of the Community Center rain garden (top) and where it will be located with respect to the building (click image to enlarge).

A rain garden, once a part of the plan for the Community Center but shelved due to cost, is back on track.

A rain garden is an environmentally natural way to deal with the runoff from roofs, walkways, and other hard surfaces. The Community Center Rain Garden will be located close to the main entry door and will fill with a few inches of water after rain and then filter the water into the surrounding soil, reducing runoff and recharging the ground water, reducing the need for irrigation and conserving water. It will include a variety of colorful and deep-rooted native seasonal plantings such as iris, lobelia, bee balm, black-eyed Susan and asters, as well as flowering shrubs such as winterberry and holly.

“We express deep thanks to the von Mertens family, who have donated funds to the town to support this valuable resource for the Community Center,” the Community Center Building Committee said in a statement.

The $26.35 million facility broke ground in October 2025 after the Hartwell pods were demolished over the summer and is slated for completion in late fall 2026. It’s being paid for by a combination of bonding, money from the town’s free cash and stabilization fund, and donations, including $1 million from the Friends of the Council on Aging, $500,000 from the Ogden Codman Trust, and (as of March 2024) $340,000 in individual donations. A $24 million bond sale in December funneled $15 million to the Community Center while also funding the $8.47 million Lincoln Road water main project and other Water Department items.

See the CCBC website for construction updates as well as the building’s site plan and floor plan.

Legal notice: Historic District Commission (19 Brooks Rd)

LEGAL NOTICE — HISTORIC DISTRICT COMMISSION

The Historic District Commission will hold a virtual online public hearing at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, to consider the application of Brian and Kimberly Jalet, 19 Brooks Rd., M/P 112-34-0 to rebuild a garage and add an apartment above. Anyone wishing to be heard on this matter should be present at the designated time and place.

Time: May 12, 2026 7:30 PM

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 983 9661 4379         Password: 167620

Note that legal notices often must be posted twice by law. For previous legal notices and details on how to submit a legal notice to the Lincoln Squirrel, click here.

Legal notice: ZBA (May 7, 2026 hearing)

 

LEGAL NOTICE — ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

The Zoning Board of the Appeals of the Town of Lincoln will hold a virtual online public hearing Thursday, May 7, 2026, at 7:00 P.M to hear and to act on the following petitions under the Zoning Bylaws:

New:

  • Lovelane Special Needs Program, 40 Baker Bridge Rd., M/P 142-10-0 for renewal of a special permit for an accessory apartment.
  • John and Irene Briedis, 27 Canaan Drive, M/P 135-9-0 for renewal of a special permit for an accessory apartment.
  • Alexander Benik, 4 Storey Drive, M/P 150-3-0 for a special permit to build a shed and office space on an existing slab.
  • John and Lauren Steele, 33 Farrar Rd., M/P 174-18-0 for a variance to construct a two-story addition, front porch and two car garage.
  • Bruce MacDowell/Alison Zook, 339 South Great Rd., M/P 185-16-0 for a special permit for a change in use.
  • Robert Domnitz, for an Appeal of the Building Inspector’s Decision on 16 Mill St., M/P 115-17-0.

Anyone wishing to be heard on this matter should be present at the designated time and place.

» Zoom link

Meeting ID: 92780169188       Password: 735886

Note that legal notices often must be posted twice by law. For previous legal notices and details on how to submit a legal notice to the Lincoln Squirrel, click here.

News acorns

Bake sale to support homelessness project

Lincoln School eighth-graders are addressing homelessness for their civics action project by providing care packages to homeless individuals in the greater Boston area filled with nonperishables and basic hygiene items. To support the effort, they are hosting a bake sale on Wednesday, April 29 from 1:00–3:00pm at Town Hall. If you’d like to make a contribution to the project or contact them, email Lila Kanner at lilakanner@gmail.com (her Venmo link is @lilakanner).

Read and subscribe to SelectConnect

Read the April 29 issue of SelectConnect, the Select Board’s semi-monthly e-newsletter designed to keep you in the loop with timely updates on town projects, policies, meetings, and ways to get involved. Click here to subscribe, and click here to view previous editions. Questions? Email Select Board member Kim Bodnar at bodnark@lincolnma.gov.

It’s garlic mustard season

Help manage this invasive plant across town by pulling garlic mustard weed on your own property and by joining town staff for pop-up pull days. Free paper bags are available at the Conservation Department and Lincoln Land Conservation Trust offices. Lincoln residents may also pick up bags at the transfer station on Saturday, May 2 and Wednesday, May 13 from 10:00am–noon. Full bags can be dropped off at the Lincoln DPW at 30 Lewis St. until June 12. Leave bags in the designated bay at the base of the cell tower. Please do not use plastic bags, and do not dispose of bags in the large brush pile. The DPW is open Monday through Friday from 7:30am–3:00pm.

Pop-up pull days are hosted by the Lincoln Conservation Department and the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust on three Fridays from 1:00–3:00pm: May 15, May 29, and June 12. For more information or to sign up, contact Ryan Brown at brownr@lincolnma.gov.

Library news

  • The Lincoln Public Library will be closed on Sundays beginning May 3 and will reopen for Sunday service in October.
  • Visit the library’s seed catalog to pick up free flower and plant seeds for your garden. Seeds donated by Russell’s Garden Center.

Info on hydrant flushing and more

The Lincoln Water Department now has a Facebook group page where it posts updates regarding hydrant flushing along with other helpful information on there. Just click to join the group.

Teens invited to volunteer for trail work

Celebrate Earth Day (belatedly) by joining First Parish in Lincoln’s teen service group in helping town conservation staff repair trails and bridges and destroy invasive plants at Beaver Pond on Saturday, May 9 from 9:00am–noon. Eligible for school service hours, and participants do not need to be members of the church. Register here. Questions? Contact Jason McLure at jmclure@yahoo.com or Lora Venesy at lora@fplincoln.org.

Car wash Venmo link

Eighth-grade car wash on May 16

Lincoln School eighth-graders will hold a car wash fundraiser to help raise money for their graduation celebrations on Saturday, May 16 from 9:00am–3:00pm at the Town Hall. Save and pay ahead of time ($20) using Venmo by scanning the link at right, or pay $25 in cash on the day. Rain date: Sunday, May 17.

Learn more about AI in Bemis talk

The Bemis Free Lecture Series presents “AI Economics: How Technology Transforms Jobs, Markets, Life, and Our Future,” a talk on the new book by that title with Lincoln resident and Brandeis International Business School Associate Professor Benjamin Shiller, on Wednesday, May 20 at 7:00pm in Bemis Hall. If terms like AI, chatbot, ChatGPT, or Anthropic fill you with anxiety, curiosity, fear, confusion, or disgust, this event is for you. There will be a Q&A session and an opportunity to work with others, with Ben’s guidance, to explore the opportunities and pitfalls offered by AI.

Resources for Dark Skies-compliant lighting

Now that the Dark Skies zoning bylaw amendment has been approved, the Dark Skies Subcommittee offers this list of Online Resources of Dark Skies Fixtures and Lighting Equipment to help residents purchase Dark Skies-compliant lighting. The new rules apply to all new construction or significant renovations as well as existing structures on which new lighting fixtures are installed. New outdoor lighting must be shielded, directed downward with a maximum intensity of 900 lumens and a warm color temperature of less than 2700K.