Chelsea Elementary School Chelsea, Massachusetts

Rendering: David Pendery

The City of Chelsea, MA, has embarked upon an ambitious $120 million school construction program to provide brand new facilities for its 5300 public school students by September 1996. The Chelsea schools have been operated through a public-private collaboration between the Chelsea Public Schools and Boston University since the City was placed under State receivership after its 1991 bankruptcy.
HMFH, the architect for the new elementary and middle schools, has designed an elementary school campus for the 10-acre site at Merritt Park, which will accommodate the City's 2200 1st - 5th graders in 4 "schoolhouses" for 550 students each. Though part of a single building complex, the "schoolhouses" will operate as independent entities with their own public entrances and school administration facilities. A cafeteria, library, gymnasium and health suite will be shared by each pair of "schoolhouses."
The 256,000 s.f. complex will be constructed of patterned brick masonry for a suitably traditional appearance. The colors and patterns of the brick masonry will be subtly varied to differentiate each of the four "schoolhouses" for better identification by the children. Classrooms and related facilities are on the first 3 stories, and the barrel-vaulted double volumes of the gymnasiums rise above the flat third floor roof. Clerestory windows in the libraries and art studios complete the roofscape.
Preservation and improvement of the public recreation amenities at Merritt Park are an important part of the site program. The open space was divided into grass playing field and paved playground with a "Chelsea Waterfront" theme designed to give the children a connection with the larger world and with their own diverse ethnic heritages.