On a tour of the nearly completed new Watertown High School, a group saw classrooms that look ready to host classes, along with some of the gems of the new building: the gymnasium, the auditorium, and a two-story media center (a.k.a. the library).
Christy Murphy of owner project management firm Vertex gave an update on the status of the project before the group toured the building.
“We are about 97% complete, that’s in dollars, but there’s a lot of details (left). So, as we’re walking around, you’re going to see spaces that are shockingly done — some furniture’s here — finishes,” Murphy said. “And then you’re going to see other places with ceilings open, because we’re balancing or working on something else.”
The building has turned out the way the designers and school officials hoped. It impressed outsiders who know a thing or two about school projects, said Paul Anastasi, a member of the School Building Committee and a retired school facilities director in Newton and Watertown.
“Last week I came through here with a good friend of mine who was a facilities director in another district for years, and was the president of the Mass. Facilities Association, and is now the executive director of the national organization for facilities directors across the country,” Anastasi said. “He was on the MSBA Design Review Committee when our building was there. I brought him through … and when I took him through the building, he used two words: beautiful and amazing.”
Many classrooms have desks in them, and lab tables in the science rooms, ready for teachers to move in.
“The teachers are all packed,” said Superintendent Dede Galdston. “And then the movers come in August.”
The school has two music rooms, a smaller and larger one, designed with acoustics in mind, said Construction Site Manager Laurie Soave.
“These are beautiful double height spaces,” Soave said. “The grand piano will be going into the space when that’s all set up and the air is balanced, and we have some uprights (pianos) again in all the music rooms.”
The Media Center, which will have shelves for books along with computers and other resources, occupies the top two stories of the school. The Fab Lab makerspace sits on the second floor of the Media Center.
The new theater has two levels of seating with a capacity of 420. Backstage can be used for musicians to accompany a production. It can also be turned into a separate black box theater with a soundproof curtain so two activities can take place at one time, Soave said.
Work continues on the art rooms at the new high school. Facilities will include a pottery area with a kiln, a photo darkroom, and more, Soave said.
The latest coat of polyurethane was still drying on the floor of WHS’s new gym during the tour. When ready, there will be space for a full, regulation size court the long way, and also another one the short way; and there is room for three courts the short way. A curtain can be brought down to split the gym in two.
A walking track hangs above the gym floor, with two lanes for people to circulate. The walkway also leads to the fitness rooms, which contain cardio equipment, weights and more.
At the end of the gym, the outdoor recreation area is visible.
“It’s the outdoor play adventure room, the outdoor patio,” Galdston said. “It’s a multipurpose outdoor space with ping pong, and there’s going to be cornhole, and all sorts of fun things.”
Students and staff will also be able to get outside to eat lunch during the nicer weather. Seat for meals includes space right near the kitchen, in the wide hallways nearby, and under the overhang outside the cafeteria.
Work on the outdoor learning space, which will include a small amphitheater, continues.
“This is where all the drought resistant plantings are, some of the water catch basins, and so they are going to be great outdoor learning spaces, or just a place to gather,” Soave said.
The new High School will have spaces for multiple vocational and career technical programs, including early childhood education, engineering, culinary, video and radio production, and carpentry.
Inside the early childhood classroom, 18 WHS students will work with preschoolers as part of their program.
The culinary program classroom has full stoves, hoods, prep areas and more.
A less visible feature of the new school will have a big impact on the school and the surrounding neighborhood. The underground garage will have 128 parking spaces, including several with electric vehicle charging stations. The old high school only had 61 spaces, Galdston said.
“It’s a game changer for the neighborhood,” Galdston said.
The new building has many large windows to help provide direct and indirect light to classrooms and other spaces. The windows also provide some spectacular views of Watertown.
Designers made sure you know you are in Watertown High School, placing large maps and overhead photos on walls inside common spaces, and large W’s made with paint, panels, dried lichen, and lights all over the building.
Murphy did not say exactly when the school would be complete, but said there will be a public grand opening.
“We’re not putting a day on it yet, it’s this summer,” Murphy said. “So that we can have a beautiful grand opening on Sept. 1, and we’re moving out of Moxley in August.”
