A preference for a new, six-story Winter Hill area school for 925 students has been submitted to the state, Somerville officials said Wednesday. The city’s School Committee and School Building Committee voted Aug. 18 on which design to submit.
The campus coming to 115 Sycamore St. would open in 2031 if the plan is advanced by the state and if city voters agree to pay for roughly half the cost – the part not taken care of by the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
The project replaces The Winter Hill Community Innovation School, a 89,410-square-foot structure built in 1974 that closed for safety concerns June 2, 2023, after a piece of concrete fell in a stairwell. It also address accessibility, aging infrastructure and other facility challenges at the Benjamin Brown School’s building at 201 Willow Ave.; its students would be transitioned to the new facility.
Among highlights of the preferred design by project architects Perkins Eastman, according to a city press release:
Grade-level “clusters” intended to create smaller communities within the school and spaces for students of different ages.
Keeping the schoolyard location and using the natural slope of the site to provide a “rooftop” play space accessible at street level from Evergreen and Sycamore streets.
Access to gym and cafetorium for use by the community outside of school hours.
“This will add an outstanding facility to our district that will serve Somerville students for generations,” mayor Jake Wilson said.
The state will now review the city’s submission – the result of planning that began in 2023 – and the MSBA’s board of directors will need to vote whether to advance the project to a “schematic design” phase.
Somerville schools superintendent Ruben Carmona said the design will be better for students and educators, with dedicated spaces for such things as Special Education. “The goal is not simply to build a larger school but to create a modern, state-of-the-art school environment where every student feels known, supported and challenged,” Carmona said.
