Josiah Quincy Upper School Opens and Brings New Opportunities to Boston’s Chinatown Neighborhood!

Josiah Quincy Upper School Opens and Brings New Opportunities to Boston’s Chinatown Neighborhood!

Boston’s newest public school building is officially open, with learning in full swing for 650 students across grades 6-12. Located in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood, the Josiah Quincy Upper School (JQUS) advances the City’s goals for high-level, inclusive education and environmental sustainability, providing Boston Public Schools students with state-of-the-art learning facilities that also serve the local community.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony brought city, state, and school officials, project team members, and the JQUS community together to celebrate the new middle high school and the many opportunities it will bring for both Boston students and residents. As one of the first projects to open under the Green New Deal for Boston Public Schools, JQUS is leading the way with a design that prioritizes equity, sustainability, and a community focus. The school is also on track to achieve LEED Platinum certification, further cementing its status as a model for resilient, sustainable architecture.

“If you think about a school as the physical embodiment of all the talent, imagination, and possibility of the young people it serves — that is this building!”

Michelle Wu | Mayor, City of Boston

One focal point of the school’s environment- and community-focused design is the new rooftop green space. HMFH’s design transformed the high-rise school’s rooftop into an outdoor learning oasis, complete with a STEM classroom, native plantings, walking paths, and seating areas. Located near two highways on just one acre of land, JQUS’s site in a dense, urban environment initially presented challenges. However, the rooftop brings new life to Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood, which has the lowest green space per capita in the City. The benefits of this landscaped roof will not only positively impact the student body but the entire neighborhood community who can also experience health and climate benefits. Specifically, the green roof will help reduce urban heat-island effect and stormwater runoff, increase biodiversity, and mitigate air pollution from the highway.

HMFH’s nature-focused design extends beyond the rooftop. Inside the school, south-facing classrooms with expansive windows deliver ample daylight to students, while an innovative HVAC system draws in filtered air to ensure a healthy interior environment with optimal air quality in all classrooms.

Notably, the all-electric, zero-carbon middle high school will be a resource for the greater community as well as its student body, allowing public access to community-oriented shared spaces on the first and second floors, including the cafeteria, media center, black box theater, auditorium, and gymnasium.

“This state-of-the-art facility represents our unwavering commitment to providing a world-class education in an environment that nurtures and inspires.”

Mary Skipper | Superintendent, Boston Public Schools

While the ribbon-cutting signifies JQUS’s official opening, students had returned to school a week earlier and have since been enjoying the new facilities, including collaborative project areas, modern labs, small group workrooms, breakout areas, and flexible furniture designed to support a variety of learning modes. With its full range of educational amenities and International Baccalaureate program offerings, its emphasis on sustainable, healthy, and welcoming environments, and its public-facing spaces for community use, the Josiah Quincy Upper School will be an often-used and highly valued resource by both students and the surrounding neighborhood.

Middle High Schools Help Communities Make the Most of Educational and Financial Resources

Middle High Schools Help Communities Make the Most of Educational and Financial Resources

When faced with replacing or modernizing aging middle and high schools, communities must grapple with significant financial and educational challenges. In many cases, particularly where existing schools are small, it makes sound financial and educational sense to combine academic programs into a single facility. Below are a few of the strategies that HMFH incorporates when working with school districts and communities to design co-located middle high schools.

Efficiency Through Shared Spaces

Designing middle high schools creates the opportunity for districts to share essential spaces, thereby eliminating the duplication of facilities such as:

  • Kitchens
  • Gymnasiums, alternative physical education spaces, fitness rooms, outdoor sports fields and tracks
  • Theaters and auditoriums
  • Music spaces including chorus and band rooms
  • Media centers or libraries

If these facilities were built separately, each school would need its own, leading to higher construction and operational costs. Additionally, by combining the schools, expensive but often infrequently used spaces such as theaters or auditoriums can achieve cost effectiveness simply by increasing utilization rates. In these cases, middle school students also benefit from having access to sophisticated performance and assembly spaces not typically available in standalone middle school buildings.

Operational, Environmental, and Logistical Improvements

Beyond construction cost savings, co-locating middle and high schools results in operational efficiencies as well. A shared mechanical plant, for instance, lowers ongoing facility-wide expenses, requires fewer personnel to manage its services, and leads to a significant reduction in long-term expenditures. Equally valuable, shared HVAC and electrical systems almost certainly reduce a facility’s overall energy expenditure, creating opportunities for minimizing the school’s environmental impact.

Combining middle and high schools also allows for more efficient transportation to and from the facility. Buses can serve both student populations, reducing the number of trips required while lowering transportation costs and reducing fuel consumption.

Educational Benefits of Co-located Schools

While the financial benefits are compelling, the educational advantages of a combined middle and high school are equally significant. Shared facilities mean students experience fewer transitions between buildings throughout their educational career. Transitioning from middle to high school can be a challenging time for students, and a combined school can provide a more fluid educational journey.

A combined school also creates opportunities for increased collaboration among educators. Middle and high school teachers can work together more effectively, gaining a deeper understanding of their students’ needs and academic progress. This collaboration can lead to more personalized and consistent support for students as they move from one grade to the next.

Additionally, middle school students in a co-located school may have access to high school-level classes and specialized spaces such as maker spaces, robotics labs, career technical education (CTE) shops, and advanced science labs. These resources, which are typically unavailable in standalone middle schools, enrich the educational experience and provide early exposure to advanced course work. For high school programs that feature strong CTE opportunities, a middle school population can serve as a feeder, introducing students to career pathways earlier in their academic careers.

HMFH Advances the Middle High School Model

When designing middle high schools, we use strategies that result in optimal educational experiences, cost savings, operational efficiencies, and lowered energy consumption. Our expertise in designing for this relatively new program type continues to grow. To date, we have completed eight middle high schools, including the award-winning Saugus Middle High School and the Josiah Quincy Upper School for the City of Boston. And we are currently in design for the first Middle High School in the State of Rhode Island.

The advantages of combined middle high schools are clear in addressing the challenge of modernizing or replacing aging school facilities. HMFH meets these challenges with design expertise and a passionate commitment to creating schools that offer long-term benefits to students, teachers, administrators, and the communities where they stand.

HMFH Bus Tour 2024

HMFH Bus Tour 2024

Every summer, HMFHers come together for our annual bus tour to visit several of the firm’s projects in construction. The tradition looked a little different this year as we traded the bus for the subway to visit two local projects. Our first stop was the Josiah Quincy Upper School, a new high-rise school in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood that will welcome students, staff, and the community this fall. In the afternoon, we hopped on the train back to Cambridge, MA to tour an addition and renovation that will provide much-needed affordable housing for the City.

Now in the final stages of construction, the grade 6-12 Josiah Quincy Upper School will open to students for the 2024-2025 school year, bringing expanded educational opportunities with spacious, light-filled learning and common areas and a coveted rooftop green space that supports student well-being. Public-facing amenities near the ground level, including a cafeteria, media center, gymnasium, auditorium, and black box theater, will make this school a valuable resource for the entire Chinatown community.

Everyone was thrilled to see our design solutions come to fruition, from the accessible green roof, which is the school’s primary outdoor space, to the cantilevered auditorium and gymnasium that define prominent public programs along the façade.

Next, we made our way to the 116 Norfolk Street: Supportive Housing project, a renovation and addition to a 1907 building in the heart of Cambridge, MA, just a stone’s throw away from HMFH’s office. As one of the first developments under Cambridge’s new Affordable Housing Overlay (AHO) zoning ordinance, 116 Norfolk expands affordable housing with 62 units for seniors and previously unhoused people.

We toured light-filled common areas in the vestibule between the existing building and addition, as well as different units, which all feature tall ceilings and windows to create a bright and welcoming interior environment.

Pip Lewis is One of GB&D’s 10 Architects Designing for Equity

Pip Lewis is One of Green Building & Design’s 10 Architects Designing for Equity

Article

Community Celebrates Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School Topping Off

Community Celebrates Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School Topping Off

HMFH joined members of the school community, MSBA, and state legislators for the topping off of the new Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School, marking a significant milestone in the construction of the facility.

To commemorate the moment, students, staff, and members of the design and construction team signed the final steel beam before it was placed on the structure. Designed to integrate traditional academics with modern career technical education (CTE) programs, the new school exemplifies a forward-looking educational model poised to benefit future generations.

Located in Taunton, MA, the school will serve 1,434 students in grades 9 through 12 and provide state-of-the-art facilities when it opens in 2026. Each of the school’s 19 career technical programs is designed to provide students with the skills and knowledge needed for a range of career paths. Cutting-edge shops and labs are organized into program-based career clusters, providing a dynamic learning environment that models real life work settings. An expansive courtyard at the heart of the school is flanked by the student hub, which includes an auditorium, cafeteria, and media center and promotes community and collaboration.

The new school embodies Bristol-Plymouth’s mission, clearly communicating its purpose to students, faculty, and visitors. Public-facing programs such as Culinary Arts, Cosmetology, Graphic Design, and Early Childhood Education are strategically located along the south-facing façade. Complemented by adjacent visitor parking, clear signage, and bold graphics, the visibility of these programs promotes these services to the greater community.

The topping off ceremony was a celebration of what is certain to become a beacon of modern education and a major new community amenity. Along with the progressive curriculum it will house, Bristol-Plymouth’s new school building is sure to set new standards for both educational and architectural excellence in Taunton.

Bringing Design Awareness to Teens Outside of Boston

Bringing Design Awareness to Teens Outside of Boston

As part of its mission to increase the number of minorities within the architecture profession, the Racial Equity and Diversity (RED) Committee at HMFH prioritizes outreach to high school students in communities where there may be less awareness of architecture as a potential career path.

Last month, several RED Committee members visited career fairs throughout the Greater Boston area, meeting with dozens of students face-to-face to share information about the wide range of career opportunities available in the AEC industry.

Existing Programs Introduce Careers in Architecture to High School Students—But Remain Inaccessible to All

Reaching public school students outside of Boston proper is a main focus for the HMFH RED Committee as there continues to be limited opportunity awareness among this population. In an effort to combat this inequity, the Boston Society for Architecture and the Boston Private Industry Council have co-organized programs to introduce architecture as a career path for teenagers attending Boston Public Schools (BPS). HMFH is proud to be a long-time participant in these events, including the BSA- and BPIC-hosted Architecture/Design Thinking Week, a four-day workshop where public school students can learn about the architecture field from local working architects, engage in activities like drawing and model-making, and seek inspiration and guidance to pursue their growing interests in architecture.

But while these programs provide excellent content, only students attending public schools within Boston’s city limits can participate.

HMFH RED Committee Meets Students Where They Are with New Career Fair Initiative

To expand awareness of architecture as a profession and reach students who live outside of Boston proper, the RED Committee has launched an initiative across Massachusetts, working with public high school counselors and nonprofit organizers to visit career fairs around the state and connect with students about career opportunities in architecture.

High school career fairs have a well-established presence in communities throughout the Commonwealth. Every year, representatives from different employers, colleges, and universities come together to transform schools’ gymnasiums, cafeterias, and other gathering spaces into dedicated centers for students’ professional advancement. Here, students who are just beginning to consider their potential future career paths can ask questions, watch presentations, mingle with professionals, and otherwise seek guidance and mentorship as they embark on their adult lives.

Showcasing Architecture as a Career Path

This spring, HMFH was proud to be the first architecture firm to present at career fairs in Lynn and Chelsea, joining representatives from long-standing traditional career paths, like banks, law firms, police departments, and fire departments.

At each fair, the HMFH tables were stacked with technology and models, a particularly eye-catching display for the many students who had never before considered architecture as a profession. Their questions were plentiful, diverse, and often surprising, demonstrating a high degree of insight and curiosity.

One student asked, “What personal traits should someone have if they want to study architecture?” Others followed with more tactical concerns, like “Where do I start if I want to study architecture?” or “How do I get my foot in the door?”

For most students, this was their first opportunity to have face-to-face conversations with design professionals about what it’s like to work in the industry and discover the many adjacent career pathways available in the larger AEC industry, e.g., interior design, art, history, science, real estate, construction, etc.

Finally, to help students better visualize the many opportunities for a career in architecture and give them a launching pad from which to begin their journeys, the RED Committee gave every interested student brochures highlighting different HMFH projects, a diagram illustrating how to become an architect, and a list of resources to discover local schools, available scholarships, and other key information about pursuing a career in architecture.

An Office-Wide Commitment to Mentorship

The HMFH RED Committee comprises 13 staff members whose experience levels range from firm principal to recent graduate. Their work participating in high school career fairs and presenting career opportunities in architecture to traditionally underserved communities is just one effort in their broader push to inspire the next generation of AEC professionals—especially those in minority communities.

This year’s career fair initiatives were led by the RED Committee, but the commitment to educating and inspiring young adults is shared office-wide. Outside of its work at high school career fairs, the larger HMFH community continues to participate in other programs that serve to stimulate students’ interest in architecture as a career path. For example, HMFH regularly hosts students for summer internship programs and led a session at the BSA’s Design Thinking Week this spring.

To date, the HMFH RED Committee has presented at Lynn English High School, Chelsea High School, Everett High School, and Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, reaching thousands of high school students. RED Committee members also recently attended a career fair at the Reggie Lewis Center, sponsored by Breakthrough Greater Boston, a nonprofit whose mission is to inspire excitement for learning, create paths to and through college, and promote careers in education.

HMFH looks forward to continuing its school outreach to meet, inspire, educate, and support students on their burgeoning career paths in architecture.

Tunable Lighting: Mimicking the Natural Progression of Daylight

Tunable Lighting:
Mimicking the Natural Progression of Daylight

Tunable lighting, a dynamic LED technology, plays a crucial role in creating learning environments that support student well-being and academic performance. It offers adjustable color temperatures and intensities that mimic daylight, enhance student health, aid teachers in creating optimal learning environments, and guide student behavior within classrooms.

Health and Well-being

One of the primary ways tunable lighting promotes health is by supporting the synchronization of circadian rhythms. Light can be adjusted throughout the day to help regulate sleep-wake cycles, stimulating alertness during learning hours and fostering better sleep quality at night. These factors may contribute to improved concentration, mood stability, and overall well-being among students and teachers.

Optimizing Learning Environments

Tunable lighting allows educators to customize classroom ambiance according to specific activities and learning needs. For example, cooler tones may be chosen to promote focus and productivity while warmer tones set the stage for relaxed and creative pursuits. In addition to supporting diverse learning styles, this adaptability has been shown to enhance student engagement and academic performance.

Behavior Cues

Research suggests that exposure to specific light wavelengths can positively affect some of the challenging behaviors associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In these cases, tunable lighting can improve social interactions in classrooms and support behavior management.

The positive effects of tunable lighting are still being evaluated. Nonetheless, many educators are already welcoming this technology into their classrooms as part of a holistic program for using LED lighting to create engaging environments.

Four HMFH-designed schools are or will be programmed to include tunable lighting technology:

This new school for 1,755 students includes a total of 25 rooms that incorporate tunable lighting technology. Arlington’s extensive adoption plan for this new technology will offer HMFH the potential for broad and deep post-occupancy evaluation.

Bristol County Agricultural High School is a design-award winning project, notable for its deep sustainability program and unique, hands-on learning environment. Here, tunable lighting supports specialized lab spaces for the school’s Natural Resource Management and Animal Science programs.

Bristol-Plymouth is currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2026. The school prioritizes health and well-being through multiple initiatives including a healthy material pilot program as well as the implementation of tunable lighting in special education spaces.

Saugus Middle High School is a STEAM-driven, design-award-winning project that has incorporated tunable lighting technology into a total of 10 classrooms. Natural daylight floods the building’s interior and is strategically complemented by tunable lighting technology.

HMFH is committed to designing exceptional schools composed of healthy, sustainable, and environmentally efficient environments. Leveraging the power of daylight is central to our design philosophy and is prioritized throughout every school we serve. And now, tunable lighting offers educators an unprecedented level of control when using light to optimize learning environments, manage classroom behaviors, and promote overall student health and wellbeing. When deployed as part of an overall light management strategy, tunable lighting technology can support transformative outcomes.

Bristol Aggie’s Center for Science and the Environment Wins Grand Prize Award!

Bristol Aggie’s Center for Science and the Environment Wins Grand Prize Award!

Award

Our design of Bristol County Agricultural High School’s Center for Science and the Environment earned a Grand Prize award from Learning by Design for exemplary educational architecture that addresses sustainability and social impact, next-generation learning, effective space planning, and community needs.

Designed as a living learning center, the Center for Science and the Environment (CSE) features a student-curated natural resource museum, a grooming lab, bio-secure labs, flexible classrooms, and a student-planted roof garden. Each space is carefully tailored to accommodate specific program needs with innovative technology, lighting and thermal control, and specialized equipment that enable partnerships with local and national environmental organizations. Sustainable design elements, including green roofs, photovoltaics, and composting toilets, reinforce Bristol Aggie’s curriculum rooted in science and environmental education.

Learning by Design’s Educational Facilities Design Awards highlights successful school projects from early childhood to higher education. The Grand Prize award winners earned special recognition for addressing six critical aspects of a successful learning environment: design challenges and innovation, sustainability and social impact, interior architecture, next-generation learning, effective space planning, and community needs. The CSE demonstrates the concept of architecture as a learning tool—with building systems and sustainable design on display for students, the facility itself has become an integral part of the school’s curriculum.

“The Center for Science and the Environment embodies a commitment to sustainability and hands-on learning. Incorporating green roofs, outdoor learning spaces, and composting toilets, the design reflects the school’s focus on agriculture and the environment.”

Jury Comments | Learning by Design

Suni Dillard Wins AIA Young Architects Award 2024

Suni Dillard Wins AIA Young Architects Award 2024

Award

We are thrilled to announce the recognition of Suni Dillard, Senior Associate and Sustainability Leader, by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for her exceptional leadership and significant contributions to the architecture profession through environmental advocacy, increasing access to great design, and mentoring future architects.

Promoted last year to Senior Associate, Suni is driven by the challenge of socially responsible design that positively impacts both the health of people and the environment.

As a Sustainability Leader guiding HMFH’s Sustainability Committee, Suni empowers her colleagues, clients, and community to set ambitious sustainability goals—which isn’t always easy to prioritize in public projects. Particularly for clients who are undertaking what are likely to be once-in-a-lifetime projects for their communities (like school buildings that will be in use for 50+ years), newly available design and sustainability opportunities aren’t always obvious. This is where Suni encourages them to think holistically and consider how they can take their project steps further to create designs that are environmentally and socially impactful. In her words, she pushes them “to do more than just make a new building.”

With her three co-leaders, Suni and the HMFH Sustainability Committee are creating a framework to navigate design processes in concert with the needs of the environment. In doing so, she wants to remind people that design is not just about aesthetics—that it’s important to think more holistically, understand the context, and include sustainable and social justice in the design. “It’s all one package,” she says. “It’s not just about what the building looks like. Good design will address all of these things.”

Outside of HMFH, Suni continues to champion her mission of combining sustainability and social responsibility with good design. She has led the Carbon Leadership Forum Boston chapter’s education committee since 2020. She also curated the Embodied Carbon Series, which helps AEC professionals understand and apply embodied carbon best practices to their projects to reduce emissions and achieve zero carbon. What began as an online series Suni and a small advisory group developed during the COVID-19 pandemic has become a nationally-recognized course and a staple of AIA University.

Notably, Suni prioritizes sharing her experiences and knowledge with the rising generation of future architects.

“It’s important for people to understand that they have options to navigate and that they need to learn how to advocate for themselves.” For Suni, mentoring is about more than just listening to questions and offering advice. She sees it as her responsibility to bring those questions to places she now gets to participate in as a Senior Associate—back to where the decision-makers are. Looking ahead, this is what Suni sees for the future of the architecture profession: education. In all directions.

“Going forward, my goal is to continue educating clients, people in the profession, and the general public to think more critically about how we function as architects. As an industry, we all have to figure out how to do better and design on a holistic level to positively impact the community and the environment. It won’t be just about doing business as usual.”

Suni Dillard | Senior Associate and Sustainability Leader, HMFH Architects

Cultivating the Next Generation of Design Professionals at Architecture / Design Thinking Week

Cultivating the Next Generation of Design Professional at Architecture / Design Thinking Week

A cohort of 20 Boston Public high school students joined three HMFH designers over the February break to participate in Architecture/Design Thinking Week at BSA Space. This program provides students with the hands-on opportunity to learn about the profession of architecture from young professionals working in the field.

The four-day event introduced participants to distinct phases of the design process including programming; conceptual design; design development; and construction administration. Throughout the week students exercised extreme creativity with drawings, collage, and model making to design a wide range of rooms and nooks that represented their ideal workspaces. HMFH facilitated the final day, which focused on construction administration (CA). To explore the concepts of CA, our designers Hannah Keith, Jake Picariello, and Nallely Salazar guided participants through the process of selecting finishes, specifying materials, and thinking through fine details such as where in a space one might hang their backpack.

Before the interactive session began, students were presented with a deep dive into some of HMFH’s recent design work, which gave them insight into the wide-ranging skills that are required to accomplish exemplary school building design. The projects reviewed included the four-phased construction of Arlington High School, the Annie E. Fales School which is distinguished as the first net-positive energy school in New England, and the Bristol County Agricultural High School. By seeing the building drawings and learning about work that included coordination with consultants and stakeholder engagement, students could visualize a variety of possible careers.

In addition to providing participants with insight into career pathways in AEC, Architecture/Design Thinking Week provides our designers with mentorship opportunities. Cultivating the next generation of architects and instilling in them a passion for design is one of our core values, which we pursue through community outreach, providing summer intern opportunities, mentorship, and by participating in programs such as Architecture/Design Thinking Week.

Architecture/Design Thinking Week, is a collaborative effort between the Boston Society for Architecture (BSA), the BSA Foundation, Boston Private Industry Council (PIC), Finegold Alexander Architects, Goody Clancy, Sasaki/Sasaki Foundation, and HMFH, which has been participating for the past five years.