PROJECT NARRARTIVE

At the culmination of a master plan for Groton Public Schools and the largest passed-referendum in state history, a new 155,000-SF, 950-student middle school was the first of three school projects for the shipbuilding, coastal district. Two middle schools, located on opposite ends of town, were consolidated to bring together students of varying demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds, and combine their respective themes, STEAM and Arts & Humanities, under one roof.

The planning for the middle school embraces the sloped site by safely inviting students to a single bus entrance at the second floor, opposite from the first floor, main public entry. Between these two points, a multi-level organizing concourse guides foot traffic to a crossroads of academics, specialty instruction and community gathering spaces. As students traverse the concourse, they are surrounded by floor-to-ceiling graphics that inspire, embrace, and unify the culturally-diverse population, framing the view to the heart of the building: the student commons.

Instead of providing a traditional auditorium, which is present in the neighboring high school on campus, the design team formed a system of spaces that fosters a principal project goal of providing “flexible, educational environments that promote tomorrow’s teaching and collaborative learning activities.” The student commons is flanked by three instructional/performance spaces featuring vertically-retractable walls that allow spaces to flex to smaller choral rooms or expanded black-box theater. When open to the student commons, several audience sizes and configurations can be implemented using the student dining seats.

Academic settings that support their International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme include a makerspace strategically located to take advantage of the student commons open floor area for a robotics court, science labs with overhead power supply to support multiple furniture arrangements, and art studios that include an outdoor learning patio.

Floor level design themes of sea, land, sun and sky are inspired by the building’s shoreline location. Interior color by floor is implemented as wayfinding with inspirational super-graphics in key locations. Common spaces integrate all four colors, representing inclusivity of the entire student body.

The project exceeds Connecticut’s High Performance Building Standards, achieving LEED Gold equivalent.