Boardwalk Campus by Arrowstreet

BOARDWALK CAMPUS

ACTON, MA

BOARDWALK CAMPUS

The first double Net Zero (energy, water) school in Massachusetts, the 175,000 SF Boardwalk Campus, is a new model for sustainable, healthy, and resilient schools for communities across the country. The building houses two separate elementary schools and a preschool.

By creating a new, consolidated campus, the community wanted to provide a more healthy and vibrant learning environment while reducing the enviornmental impact and operational costs of the facility, allowing more funds to be used to support educational programming.

Located by Fort Pond Brook, the school is carefully sited to minimize impact on the site and celebrate the ecosystem of the adjacent wetlands.

The new accessible boardwalk provides a vital connection across the wetlands, creating learning opportunities for students and the entire community.

CELEBRATING ECOSYSTEM & COMMUNITY

The new boardwalk provides a vital connection across the wetlands that bisect the site, creating learning opportunities for students and the entire community. Educational signage highlighting the project’s sustainability, resilience, and wellness goals reinforces the connection to the natural environment.

COMMUNITY RESOURCE

The shared cafeteria, library, and gyms reduce the overall size of the building while helping to unify the students of both schools into a single community.

“The project is a community resource allowing the district to expand programs during the school year and the summer as well as provide space for community use.”

KAte Bu B ris K i , Director of Su S tainability & b uil D ing Performance

CREATING EQUITY & IDENTITY

Each school is designed to have its own distinct character reflective of its programs and the District’s school choice philosophy. The site’s natural landscape and adjacency to a protected wetland inspired the design, educational graphics, wayfinding, and signage. Ground, vegetation, and sky are the unifying themes for the three schools, which each occupy a different building level, and inspired the forms and colors that define each unique program.

Boardwalk Campus is based on regenerative design principles. It is designed, constructed, and operated to positively impact the environment by replenishing as much if not more, resources than it uses, especially around energy, water, and waste.

ZERO CARBON

The project was a pilot for the Massachusetts utility incentive program and helped establish criteria that would eventually become a new incentive path for net zero buildings. This pathway is now in place and is incentivizing large-scale adoption of net zero buildings across the state.

ZERO WATER

A rainwater collection system captures water from the roofs for toilet flushing, which represents 85% of the school’s total water demand. The water used by the building is treated on-site through a septic system which collects all gray and blackwater from the building, treats it, and re-infiltrates it.

BIOPHILIC DESIGN

The building incorporates the biophilic design strategies of nature in the space, nature of the space, and nature analogues.

The school is laid out based on the stratification of the ground floor being the earth, the second floor being vegetation and the third floor representing the sky. Wood, earth tones, patterns, and artwork reinforce the connection. In the Media Center the ceiling represents the night sky.

Daylight and views to outdoors exist in all spaces. Students are encouraged to interact with nature along the Learning Trail around the property, the nature playspace, and the boardwalk.

Bordered by the Wright Hill Conservation Area and Fort Pond Brook, the color theory for the Douglas and Gates Elementary School draws inspiration from the surrounding natural landscape. The palette evolves as students move through the space, creating identities for each of the schools, allowing for clear wayfinding throughout the building, and creating opportunities for discovery as students experience the progression of color.

SCHOOL BUILDING COMMITTEE / 12 FEBRUARY 2020

DOUGLAS & GATES ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

HEALTHIER MATERIALS

ERGONOMIC FURNITURE

DAYLIGHT & VIEWS

OPERABLE WINDOWS

NATURAL LOOK MATERIALS

DISPLACEMENT VENTILATION FOR THERMAL COMFORT & AIR QUALITY

DIMMABLE INDIRECT LIGHTING

ACOUSTICS

HEALTHY LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Classrooms are bright and airy with healthy materials and building systems. Enhanced indoor air quality, acoustics, thermal comfort, universal design, and Red List Free, lowemitting materials are used throughout the interior.

BUILDING AS LEARNING LAB

Robust graphics support the learning process and provide educational moments in fun and accessible ways. They also highlight the contributions of the site’s natural wetlands to the ecology of the community. All graphic elements are infused with educational purpose thanks to constant collaboration with teachers and review of the design through the lens of the curriculum.

Owner

LO c Ati O n

s ize

t ime L ine

cO st

Acton Boxborough Regional School District

75 Spruce Street , Acton MA, 01720

174,800 SF

2018–2023

$93,192,000

L ee D certi F ic Ati O n NE-CHPS Verified

ARCHITECT

Arrowstreet Inc.

M ECHA n ICA l E n GI n EER GGD Consulting Engineers, Inc.

El ECTRICA l En GI n EER GGD Consulting Engineers, Inc.

Plu M b I n G En GI n EER AKAL Engineering Inc.

STR u CT u RA l E n GI n EER

CIVI l E n GI n EER

Engineers Design Group, Inc.

Nitsch Engineering, Inc

l A n DSCAPE ARCHITECT Terraink Landscape Architecture

Su STAI n A b I l IT y Con S ulTA n T Arrowstreet

CHPS/En ERG y Mo DE l ER

Con STR u CTI on MA n AGER

Thornton Tomasetti

Consigli Construction Company

Fun DI n G P ART n ER Massachusetts School Building Authority

P H o T o GRAPH y Robert Benson & Edward Wonsek