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Tag: History

Thursday: Friends of Modern Architecture Honors Lincoln School Project Team!

(And the School Building Committee meets on Wednesday! Agenda is here.)

Lincoln’s 200th anniversary was in 1954, and this comes from a calendar published by the Lincoln Bicentennial Committee. The photographer was Henry Bugbee Kane.

The Friends of Modern Architecture/Lincoln (FoMA) invites you to a presentation, panel discussion, and reception celebrating the revitalization of Lincoln’s Modern school. Lincoln Modern architects Lawrence B. Anderson and Henry B. Hoover, who designed the original school buildings beginning in the 1940s, saw the power of Modernism to reimagine how architecture could assist the school community to think and learn in new and inclusive ways. With the generous support of the Town, the School Building Committee and the project architects have again reimagined the transformative power of architecture. The project team has realized an ambitious, first-in-the-state net-zero renovation that centers on teachers and students while preserving Anderson’s and Hoover’s original design intent of creating close connections to nature and using natural light to create calm energy throughout the building.  

Please join FoMA in the Learning Commons at the revitalized Lincoln School for a lively evening of architecture, education, and sustainability on March 16, 2023, from 6:30-8:00pm. Or join remotely via Zoom webinar at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82628178201 

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1994 – 1995 Time Capsules are on display in the Lincoln Public Library until Sunday, March 25th! Please stop by and see the 6th and 7th grade time capsules.

Blasts from the Past

The 3rd and 4th grade time capsules from the 1994 -1995 school project are now on display in the Lincoln Public Library! Stop by to see what students were thinking about at the time.

Also, remember this photo?

When the Auditorium was being renovated, quite a few artifacts were found in those hexagonal “clouds” in the ceiling. Some of the items are also on display at the Library.

For more time travel, check out the gallery of images documenting the 1994 mural, and see what was happening with the project in February 2022 and February 2021. Much has changed over the past few years!

The School Building Committee meets on Wednesday, February 15th at 7:00pm. Click here for the agenda.

Come hear Cantabile play (and tour the school!)

Did we mention that there’s a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on Friday, October 28th at 1:30pm?! Doors open at 1:00pm. Please let Amy Pearson, apearson@lincnet.org, know you are coming.

Can’t be there in person? Watch the ceremony live at https://www.lincnet.org/ribboncutting

Also, on Saturday, October 29th, the building will be open to the public from 9:00am – 11:00am! You will have a chance to see the school, AND you’ll be entertained by Catabile, a group of Lincoln School alumni (and current LS students): Victor Han, Henry Hussey, Nooreddeen Kawaf, Finn Larsen, and Luca Lee. The group’s Music Director is Rebecca Lee. Please come to hear these fabulous musicians!

Back to the future…

Where were you in 1995? Were you a student in the Lincoln School? Were your children in the Lincoln School? Were you teaching or working in the Lincoln School?

Before the current project, the Lincoln School was last renovated in 1994. During the 1994-1995 school year, students and teachers created time capsules that were designed to be opened in 2020. Covid and construction altered the timeline a bit, but now it is time for us all to climb into our time machine and see what our students were thinking about and predicting for the future!

The contents of the Time Capsules will be on display at the Ribbon Cutting ceremony on Friday, October 28th! (details and RSVP information below!)

What will we find when we open the envelope?

What predictions did the 4th graders make about life in 2020?

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony: Friday, October 28, 2022, 1:30 pm in the Lincoln School Learning Commons
1:00 pm: Doors open
1:30 pm: Ceremony begins
2:30 pm: Reception in the Dining Commons
3:00 pm: Building tours leave from the Dining Commons
Materials from the Time Capsules will be on display in the Dining Commons throughout the event.

Additional tours will be offered on Saturday, October 29th from 9:00 am to 11:00 am
To attend the Ribbon Cutting in person, RSVP to apearson@lincnet.org by October 21st OR set a reminder to watch the ceremony live at https://www.lincnet.org/ribboncutting

Honoring Our History…(and this week’s meeting is on Tuesday)

Honoring Our History…Building Our Future. This statement has been at the head of every blog post since 2017, but how does it really relate to the project? Since the beginning of the project, the School Building Committee (SBC) has collaborated with about a dozen town boards and departments, and this work has helped to shape a project that serves our educational goals and advances the town’s commitment to sustainability, while reflecting the history of the building and the campus.

One of the SBC’s partners throughout the process has been the Lincoln Historical Commission (LHC).  The LHC is the town board that administers Lincoln’s “Demolition Delay Bylaw” (article XXI of the town’s bylaws) which requires every building project that includes demolition to meet with the LHC to determine 1) whether the structure has historical, architectural, or cultural significance; and if so, 2) whether the structure is “preferably preserved.” The LHC worked with the SBC to understand the architectural significance of the Lincoln School and to think about how to incorporate that history into the renovation.

To mark the transition from the first phase of the project to the second, we invited Andrew Glass, chair of the LHC, to write about the ways the renovated building pays tribute to its innovative history while creating a learning environment that will serve our students for decades to come.

Sunshades on middle school; view towards dining commons.

The Lincoln School:  Smith Building and Brook Building Complexes

Lincoln residents and architects Lawrence B. Anderson (1906-1994) and Henry B. Hoover (1902-1989) made significant contributions to Modern architecture in Lincoln.  Dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Anderson, with his firm Anderson & Beckwith, designed several buildings for the Lincoln School campus, including the Smith complex from 1947 through the early 1950s and the Hartwell building in 1957.  Hoover designed more than three dozen Modern houses and municipal buildings in Lincoln, including, in 1937, Lincoln’s first Modern house.  With his firm Hoover & Hill, Hoover also designed several buildings for the Lincoln School campus, including the three Hartwell pods between 1959 and 1964 and the Brooks complex between 1963 and 1964.  

The oldest part of the Lincoln School, the Smith Building complex was one of the earliest school buildings in the nation to incorporate Modern design principles. Architectural Forum recognized the innovative qualities of the complex in an August 1950 article, which can be found here. As noted by the Architectural Forum, these qualities include:

  • The transparency between the interior and exterior of the building achieved through the use of continuous bands of fenestration (windows); 
  • Careful attention to how daylight enters the building, including through use of a sunshield between the lower and clerestory windows, which served to shade the lower windows from low-angle morning sun and reflect light up to the interior ceiling through the clerestory; 
  • The use of long bar-shaped classroom buildings to create an encompassing gesture around the Center Field; and
  • The use of acoustical tiles to reduce noise reverberation in the classrooms. 

Hoover’s Brooks Building complex built on these Modern design principles.  In creating the auditorium, he used innovative acoustical “clouds” to help direct sound to the back of the theater.  Hoover was a master of integrating the landscape into his designs, which is reflected in the close connection of each classroom to the exterior and in the creation of a courtyard in the Brooks Building complex.

For the current project, architectural firms SMMA and EwingCole are restoring much of the Smith Building complex and all of the Brooks Building complex, working within the Modern design principles developed by Anderson and Hoover.  

  • Drawing on Anderson’s and Hoover’s legacy of the innovative use of technologies, the revitalized Lincoln School will be an all-electric, net zero building. To reduce heat load and solar glare in the classrooms, the design restores the use of sunshields as pioneered by Anderson.  The filtered light will also reduce the need to rely on artificial lighting within classrooms.  
  • Interestingly, because in the 1940s the Town chose to build a more costly gable roof rather than the shed roof proposed by Anderson, the Town opted not to build the dedicated cafeteria and kitchen that Anderson recommended.  The revitalized School has a dedicated cafeteria and kitchen for the first time, the design of which draws on Anderson’s legacy of using continuous bands of fenestration and clerestory windows to create connections to the outdoors and to provide abundant natural daylight within the building.  
  • Replacing the oldest portion of the Smith Building complex, the design for the new main entrance and Learning Commons also honors Anderson’s Modern design principles using transparent materials and sunshields.
  • Anderson’s gymnasium and Hoover’s classrooms with their innovative use of wooden beams will be restored for decades more use by students.  
  • Honoring Hoover’s legacy of innovative open-plan interior spaces and close connections to the exterior, the revitalized School contains “hub” learning spaces for grades 3 through 8.  Classrooms are arranged around a central common space promoting a neighborhood feeling among the teachers and students of a grade.  Easily-operable glass partitions between the classrooms and the hub allow teachers and students to create larger or smaller learning spaces to suit the needs of students’ varying learning styles and allow the landscape to be seen well within the interior of the building. 
  • The Dining Commons, Learning Commons, and Media Center will open directly onto outdoor terraces that will serve as outdoor learning spaces and community gathering areas during non-school hours. (Note: The construction of the Learning Commons in phase 2 required the demolition of the oldest Smith building. Click here to see videos showing the building before, during and after demolition!)
  • Finally, the School Project has restored the Auditorium, including the innovative acoustical clouds.  The Town will enjoy many years of comfort at Town Meeting and performances in the newly renovated space!

The LHC appreciates SMMA’s and EwingCole’s sensitive renovation of the Smith and Brooks buildings and the creative incorporation of Modern design principles into the revitalization project. – Andrew Glass

This week’s SBC meeting is being held on Tuesday, September 14th at 7:00pm via Zoom. Agenda and link can be found here.

Glass partitions in hub; view through to the outdoors.

Preserving History

The crew carefully removed the butterfly weathervane…

…and stored it in a padded box. At the end of the project, it will be installed near the new central entrance (You might see it on your walk back to the Codman Pool).

The commemorative bricks that were located behind Smith near the green playground have been protected and will be re-installed in a more visible location toward the end of the project.


Other News:

  • The most recent 6-week look-ahead construction schedule can be found here.
  • The next virtual SBC meeting is on Wednesday, August 12th at 7:00pm.
  • SBC Outreach will take a blog post break for a few weeks. New construction photos will get posted periodically to the July Gallery.

A look forward…and a look back…

From Superintendent McFall: What to expect September 19 – October 10:

Modular Trailer/Temporary School Update

  • The modular classrooms (trailers) that are currently located on the Lincoln campus will begin to be set into place this week to form the temporary school in the configuration that will be used to operate the K-4 school for the 2020 – 2022 school years.
  • There will be 3 additional overnight moves to transport the remaining trailers from Hanscom Air Force Base to the Lincoln campus. These overnight moves will take place on September 24, 25, and 26.
  • As the trailers arrive on site, they will be set in place and anchored to their foundation. Additional work will be carried out to connect utilities and create a temporary parking lot. This initial phase of setting the trailers is expected to be completed by October 10. Additional work on the site and interior of the temporary building will continue through December.

A Brief History of the Project...

From time to time, questions come up about where we are in the process, how much has been decided, or what the decision process has been. The links below follow the journey of the Lincoln School project:

  • 1994 – 2017: Studies that led to the project.
  • March 2017: Town votes to authorize the School Committee to use $750K for the first phase of the current project and to appoint a School Building Committee. Start of Concept Phase.
  • Summer 2017 – June 2018: Concept Phase. The design team & SBC develop a range of project choices that achieve different levels of renovation at a range of costs.
  • June 9, 2018: Special Town Meeting. Residents are given the opportunity to choose between 5 project concepts. After 2 rounds of voting, concept “L3” (a $93.9M major renovation) gets 73% of the vote. L3 is a 75% renovation/25% new construction concept that retains the “L-shape” of the current school, reconfigures/provides new spaces to support the educational program, and determines that the school will be net zero.
  • June 2018 – December 2018: Schematic Design Phase. The L3 concept is developed further in preparation for a December Special Town Meeting to bond the project. The phase ends with cost estimates before the bond vote; SBC goes through a value engineering process to make decisions that keep the project on budget.
  • December 2018: December 1st Special Town Meeting and December 3rd Special Election to bond the project.
  • December 2018 – April 2019: Design Development Phase. Continued work on interior and exterior design and materials, major systems, etc. The phase ends with cost estimates; no value engineering needed.
  • April 2019 – September 2019: 60% Construction Documents Phase. Materials, plumbing and electrical plans, mechanical systems, site work, and phasing plans are refined; design/construction team works with Lincoln Planning Board, Conservation Commission, Historical Commission, and Building Department on required permits. Phase ends with cost estimates; SBC goes through a value engineering process to make decision that keep the project on budget.
  • NOW: September 2019 – December 2019: 90% Construction Documents Phase. Continued refinement of plans and drawings in preparation for sending the project out to bid. Final round of cost estimates will be performed before the bid documents are finalized.
  • SUMMER 2020: Phase 1 begins – renovation of the Middle School (Brooks). Grades K-4 move into the temporary school; grades 5-8 move into the elementary end of the school (Smith)

Next SBC Meeting: Wednesday, September 25th, 7pm, Hartwell multipurpose room.

  • Review refinements of interior design
  • Review exteriors of Brooks & Reed Gym
  • Review plan for salvaged items
  • Monthly budget update
  • Construction update

Honoring our History…

As the SBC and design team work through the Design Development phase, there are discussions about the preservation and reinstallation of historic elements such as the butterfly weathervane and the bell from the deCordova estate. In addition, the committee is considering ways to salvage some materials from the demolition process for reuse in the building. Here are some examples:

  • deCordova Bell: The current proposal is to install the bell in the new Reed Gym connector. This is an area that will be visible to the community during events in the gym and/or the Auditorium.
  • Butterfly Weathervane: Given the scale of the weathervane, an outdoor location is probably most appropriate. The image shows some possible locations.
  • Wood Flooring from the Smith stage: The design team is proposing using the flooring from the Smith stage as an architectural accent in the Learning Commons.

…Building our Future

This was the last SBC meeting before the Design Development drawings and specifications are sent out for the next round of cost estimates (cost estimates will be reviewed at the April 10, 2019 meeting). Many details are being worked through, such as the layout of the new kitchen & dining commons. SMMA’s kitchen consultant is continuing to collaborate with the administrative team, including the Director of Food Services.  They are thinking about issues such as the ease of refilling food displays, height of the check out lines for our younger students, and orientation of the serving and check out lines for maximum efficiency. Here is the latest plan:

Also at the last meeting, the SBC heard an overview of the instructional technology plan. This includes the network infrastructure, presentation tools for classrooms and large spaces, and safety and communication equipment. The plan is to build on our current systems and tools, and do our best to “future proof” our technology. This means building in the flexibility to upgrade and replace sytems and equipment as they change over time.

And in the short term…

The SBC saw the latest iteration of the planned layout for the temporary school that will be built on the center field. Preparations for installation of the modulars are expected to begin after July 4th.

The link to the entire presentation can be found here.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, March 27th, 7:00pm, Hartwell multipurpose room.

This is a Community Project

Over the past 19 months, the Lincoln School project has been forged by the willingness of residents with a wide range of values, priorities, expertise, opinions, and viewpoints to come together to try to collaboratively solve an incredibly complex problem. The goal of the SBC has been to create a process and a platform for individual ideas to be heard and to give direction to its work. In June, we presented 5 viable ways to move forward, and our community made a group decision, in an unprecedented way, about which project best balanced those priorities and delivered the most value for the investment.

At the end of that Special Town Meeting, an overwhelming majority chose the project known as “L3.” The clarity of the vote was due to the fact that many people, with many ideas, were willing to passionately champion their values while demonstrating their willingness to compromise; finding a balance among multiple needs and interests.

The result is a project that is a reflection of resident values; it is “ours,” as a town, in every sense of the word.

What did it take to get to this point?

When we started this process, many challenged us to go beyond a school that is “safe, warm, and dry” and to focus on transforming the educational environment. They noted that the neighborhood model of classrooms, which supports how our educators teach (with future flexibility), would be easiest to achieve in a new, more compact building – not one with classrooms strung out along a long corridor.

Many residents focused on the opportunity to live up to the green energy goals LIncoln set for itself a decade ago, when the town voted to adopt a fossil fuel reduction standard for its public buildings. They focused our attention on “energy use intensity,” the importance of a well-insulated building, new heating & cooling technologies, and the need to generate electricity on site in order to further reduce our carbon footprint. This would be easiest to achieve with new construction.

Others drew our attention to the deep historical ties the town has to the Ballfield Road site. It was the home of the Lincoln Mohawks baseball team in the first half of the 20th century, and where the town regularly gathered in the grand stands. The Lincoln School itself was designed by two Lincoln-resident modern architects, Lawrence Anderson and Henry Hoover. They helped transform school architecture by providing ample access to natural light, connections to the outdoors, and moveable (dare we say flexible?) furniture that wasn’t bolted to the floor. Many residents saw the important connection of the current building to our town’s history, and wanted to ensure that we re-used as much of it as possible and preserved the integrity of the campus.

The Lincoln School is an important center of the community, and many emphasized its role in our recreational and civic life. They placed a high value on retaining both of our full-sized gyms and the Auditorium.

And everyone wanted to ensure that the project would provide good long-term value for the up-front cost – while being mindful of the immediate impact on the community.

As is quickly apparent, it is not easy to reconcile all of these priorities – but there was a lot of determination! As a result of the creativity of our design team and our committee, and a high level of community participation in the process, we all decided that L3 did the best job of drawing all of those interests together.

On Saturday, we will come together to test that hypothesis.

We know that people will come to the meeting looking at the project through different lenses and their own set of experiences. While we all listen to the presentations and the ensuing debate, the following questions might serve as a framework:

  • What is the impact of our decision on future generations of educators and learners?
  • When we look back in 10 or 20 years, will we have made a wise choice?
  • Have we successfully balanced the values of our community? – Education, environmental stewardship, respect for our history and civic life, and fiscal responsibility?
  • What is the impact of our decision on other Town priorities?

Each of us may answer these questions in different ways. We look forward to a thoughtful and thought-provoking conversation on Saturday.

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