Architects discuss school repair options

By Alice Waugh

Residents got their first glimpse of some cost options for repairing and renovating the Lincoln School at a School Building Advisory Committee forum on September 16.

About 60 residents attended the forum in the Brooks gym hosted by the SBAC and Dore and Whittier, the architectural firm hired by the panel. At Town Meeting last March, residents approved paying up to $250,000 for another consultants’ study of options for the school with an eye to those that could be funded solely by the town, since the Massachusetts School Building Authority declined to re-invite the town into the state funding process (see the Lincoln Squirrel, April 3, 2014).

As an alternative to new construction, architect Jason Boone showed some illustrations of spaces within other schools that were reconfigured to better meet current educational needs. In one case, a multipurpose space with large windows was slipped between two classrooms for use as a breakout space. Another school rearranged a block of classrooms to include a central polygonal space that was acoustically insulated and could be used for several purposes.

“We’re not sure what’s right for Lincoln yet, but this is an example of what we might want to explore as we move forward,” Boone said.

Dore and Whittier is in the process of combing through two lists of more than 100 detailed items of facilities and educational needs for the school that were identified in previous reports, said architect Jon Richardson. While they haven’t made firm cost estimates or totals for all the items, they’re taking a “component approach” to individual items such as insulating the walls of the Brooks gym.

The various repair project options fall into three categories, Richardson said: health, safety and welfare; educational needs; and work affected by code requirement triggers and local bylaws on energy conservation. The “trigger” component is significant because by state law, if the school does more than $6.5 million in renovations, the entire school will have to be brought up to state code for accessibility.

Although some projects can be done in various ways at different cost levels, “there are likely to be some things where we don’t have a choice,” Richardson said.

For example, there are several options for renovating the HVAC system (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), said Dore and Whittier’s cost estimator, Peter Bradley of PM&C. A system with overhead vents and full control of air conditioning might cost $8.1 million, while a system that adds air-conditioning capabilities to the existing ventilators would be about $7.4 million and a ductless air conditioning system for (classrooms only) would cost around $2.3 million. As the price drops, so does the precision of temperature control, sound quality and energy efficiency, he explained.

Bradley also gave ballpark estimates for different levels of renovation and new construction per square foot of space. Light renovations would cost $225 per square foot, medium renovations would be $295, heavy renovations would be $315 and new construction would cost about $325 per square foot.

The architects noted that those costs are in 2014 dollars and will go up by 2 to 5 percent a year. Since it’s too early to say when work might actually begin, “to try to guess [actual prices] now would almost be doing disservice to the town,” Richardson said.

Resident Ron Jevon questioned the needs identified by the architects based on previous studies. For example, although the McGuire report stated that the entire roof is at the end of its useful life, parts of it may not actually need replacing for several more years, he said.

“It’s really important to determine what the real needs are by inspecting the roof and determining which portions can be repaired and extend its useful life,” Jevon said. “Some ppl think there are things that need to be considered for educational needs before facilities.”

“We can talk about whether or not you agree with [those needs], but it was not our charge to explore those things,” Richardson responded.

The SBAC’s meetings take place on the first and third Tuesday of each month and are open to the public. The panel has scheduled additional public forums on October 16, December 2 and January 13, where members will make a final presentation, and the school will also be discussed at the State of the Town meeting on November 15.