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| Original Angier School, circa 1921. |
On Friday, February 26, I attended the official opening of the first all-new elementary school to be built in Newton in fifty years. The new Angier School replaces the original building from 1921, named for Newton native Albert E. Angier II, who left his Harvard studies to fight in WWI. He was killed in action in September, 1918, and received the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously. The building had not aged well, and it is very difficult to bring these older institutional structures in to conformance with modern energy and barrier-free building codes. After a long, convoluted planning process, the new building is finally here, and it's a winner.
The new building, designed by DiNisco architects, has a fairly straight-forward layout - classrooms and other spaces on both sides of a central corridor. As seen in the image below, the media center, aka the library (in yellow), turns a corner at one end of the corridor, and the gym (in coral) forms an "ell" at the other end.
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| Planning stage, courtesy http://www.wabanareacouncil.com/issue/angier-school-project |
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| Construction almost complete, courtesy http://joslinlesser.com/projects/k-12/angier-elementary-school/ |
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| Entrance, new Angier school. |
If I have a quibble with the building, it's that the exterior is a bit busy - a veritable catalog of exterior cladding materials, including stone veneer, terra cotta units, and several different types of metal panels in several different colors. However the interior is light and bright, low maintenance without being clinical, and the windows are operable!
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| Mayor Setti Warren addresses audience in the new gym. |
The opening ceremony program began with attendees - students, staff and faculty, parents, neighbors, and dignitaries - reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Remarks by the principal Loreta Lamberti and Mayor Warren followed. Jack McCarthy, of the funding agency Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) also spoke, mentioning that the Angier project came in on time and on budget, in contrast to Newton's previous project,
Newton North High School. This bit of editorializing was unnecessary, and was the only down note during an otherwise very upbeat occasion.
Final comments came from Superintendent David Fleishman, followed by songs by the students - the highlight for this attendee - and an emotional ribbon-cutting, with giant scissors wielded by Ms. Lamberti.
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| Music teacher Ms. Goldstein leads students in song. |
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| The "cafetorium". |
While the students returned to class and prepared for dismissal, we older folks were invited to the "cafetorium", a portmanteau of auditorium and cafeteria, for coffee and cake.
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| Celebratory cake. |
The school was open for self-guided exploration, but 5th graders were on hand to lead more structured tours, and I joined one led by a very articulate and poised young lady named Lily.
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| Dedicated art room. |
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| Art room. |
The art room is to die for. The media center, which I suspect is still referred to as a library by most folks, had plenty of books, but also headsets and computer stations.
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| Media center. |
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| Upper floor plan. |
All the specialist spaces - art, music, library - are located on the first floor of this three-story building. Lily led us up the stairs to the second floor, which houses kindergarten, first and second grades. Each room has a white board with overhead projectors, as well as rather nifty chairs, which are "tip-proof" and stack neatly onto the desks.
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| Classroom. |
The outdoor space - recess is key, after all - features two climbing structures, as well as a play field for games.
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| Climbing structure, almost ready for use. |
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| After-school program kids at play. |
Going forward, Newton is replacing or renovating multiple schools, and seems to be in good hands with the Owner's Project Manager, Joslin/Lesser and Associates, who handled the Angier project, and will also oversee current and future projects. Few small cities have the in-house expertise to ensure a good outcome with such complicated building projects, so the small (compared to the overall budget) extra expense of professional oversight is well worth it.
