VERI | WATERMAN ASSOCIATES LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE URBAN DESIGN PLANNING
K-12 FACILITIES PORTFOLIO
Profile
Veri | Waterman Associates, Inc. is a multiple award-winning Rhode Island based design firm specializing in landscape architecture, urban design, multi-disciplinary site planning and permitting. The office is a result of a merger between Veri & Associates of Providence, an award winning landscape architecture and urban design studio, with Waterman Design Associates of Westborough, MA, a leading Central Massachusetts-based civil engineering, landscape architecture, wetlands consulting and environmental permitting firm. Combined, the two merged offices have 20 employees and over 50 years of experience in the design and construction of the built environment. The office has been responsible for the creation of some of the most iconic built landscapes in Rhode Island over the past half century, including Kennedy Plaza in Providence, the Roger Williams National Memorial Park in Providence, India Point Park in Providence, the Atwells Avenue Arch and streetscape on Federal Hill in Providence, and the Gateway Project at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick. The firm currently pursues a diverse range of projects, including mixed-use urban developments, brownfield redevelopments, and the reclamation of post-industrial sites. Sustainable and Regenerative Design, at both the planning and implementation stages, is an increasingly important component of our current studio practice. We are committed to providing continued leadership in sustainable design and planning by remaining at the forefront of current technologies and practices. Our integrative, multi-disciplinary design approach has been specifically tailored to incorporate the most critical facets of sustainable and regenerative design and ecosystem services, including strategies such as low impact development, brownfield and greyfield restoration, the stewardship of soils, vegetation, and hydrology, and human health and well-being.
VERI | WATERMAN ASSOCIATES
Veri | Waterman Associates has worked hard to establish and maintain a reputation for design excellence amongst private developers, public municipalities, architects and allied design professionals. Our reputation- combined with our talented, awardwinning staff- allows us to offer our clients a broad range of professional site design and land assessment services. Our contributions to projects of all types lead to a measurable increase in project value. With specific expertise in landscape architecture, urban design, environmental and regulatory permitting, wetlands consulting, and site assessment, our staff of design professionals is fully qualified to provide an important leadership role in the design and execution of a broad range of project types, including urban and rural parks, streetscapes, educational, institutional and industrial campuses, athletic facilities, open space planning, and historic landscape restoration. Veri | Waterman Associates and our parent company, Waterman Design Associates are members of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), and we have LEED Accredited Professionals (LEED AP) on staff to service projects of all types.
Design Approach
Veri | Waterman Associates’ integrative, multi-disciplinary design approach is unique within the profession. We work closely with our design teams to apply systems thinking to address the whole of the project – not just the pieces. This allows us to achieve increasingly higher levels of environmentally responsible design while still maintaining the highest levels of creative control. Most importantly, this systems approach allows us to continue to successfully fulfill our clients’ programmatic requirements and budgetary objectives. Each of our projects is designed to establish or maintain a site’s unique sense of place. It is our belief that site design has the ability- or more accurately, the responsibility- to serve as more than mere architectural decoration. Good site design should raise the level of consciousness and enrich the lives of the people who inhabit it. We seek to apply this belief to every project we undertake, as we feel each endeavor is unique and every site has a different story to tell- its own. These principles enable us to produce unique, memorable landscapes- the art of making a place. Placemaking is ultimately at the core of everything we do- whether the project is a suburban streetscape or a miles-long stretch of urban roadway; a private residence or a public open space; a civic landscape or a secluded institution.
Elementary | Middle Schools
Freeman Centennial Elementary School
6
Norfolk, Massachusetts
Chickering Elementary School
10
Dover, Massachusetts
Wood End Elementary School
16
Reading, Massachusetts
Guilmette Elementary | Middle School
20
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Parthum Elementary | Middle School
26
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Witchcraft Heights Elementary School
32
Salem, Massachusetts
P.S. 3 Elementary and M.S. 4 Middle Schools
36
Jersey City, New Jersey
High Schools
Central High School
44
Newark, New Jersey
Lawrence High School Lawrence, Massachusetts
K-12 FACILITIES
52
FREEMAN CENTENNIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Norfolk, Massachusetts
The new Freeman-Centennial Elementary School is a 96,400 SF school designed to accommodate 585 students in grades K-5. The building occupies a scenic suburban site abutted by residential neighborhoods and public park land on all sides. The overall design of the site provides the necessary facilities for education services, active and passive recreation, and vehicular | pedestrian circulation, while increasing safety measures for students and staff members. Passenger car and bus circulation routes are carefully separated to reduce queuing and vehicular conflicts. Improvements to pedestrian circulation include sidewalks along and from Boardman Street to the entrance of the school and a large front courtyard area for student gathering. Numerous enhancements to active recreation amenities are also included throughout the design. New playgrounds are designed and separated by appropriate age groups (Pre-K and Grades 2-5). In addition, a large hardscape play area will be located adjacent to the playground serving Grades 25. The design also includes the renovation of all existing baseball and softball fields that are being disturbed during construction.
A critical goal of the project is to introduce sustainable design principles to connect the new school building with the surrounding landscape. Softening the architectural lines of the building, a series of vegetated screens, irrigated by roof runoff, extend up the exterior walls, and provide natural shade for the wings of the school. At strategic locations within the new parking areas, bio-retention swales will collect and treat runoff from the surrounding pavement and provide a more aesthetically pleasing and ecologically sensitive solution to stormwater management. The design of the rear courtyard area will serve a didactic purpose, as it will provide an outdoor classroom setting and also serve as an interactive educational garden that will allow students to learn about the dynamics of the outdoor environment. Within the rear courtyard, a large rain garden planted with native and ecologically sustainable plants will collect, treat, and allow for the controlled infiltration of rainwater from the roof of the school. In addition, the courtyard will include a large shade structure, designed to reflect the architectural character of the school building, which is large enough to accommodate full classes. The numerous active, passive, and architectural spaces throughout the project area are then linked by strong, linear plantings of native shade trees and shrubs and native landscape boulders, carefully designed in the motif of a riverbed leading through the rear courtyard rain garden. This riverbed motif is continuous throughout the site, and is perforated as necessary to accommodate each programmatic element. Thus, the overall layout of this aggressive design program, along with the creative use of landscape materials as a strong unifying element, portrays the new Freeman-Centennial School as a state-of-the-art, multi-use educational facility that works in true harmony with a sensitive ecological system
Within the rear courtyard, a large rain garden planted with native and ecologically sustainable plants will collect, treat, and allow for the controlled infiltration of rainwater from the roof of the school
CHICKERING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Dover, Massachusetts
The town of Dover, Massachusetts undertook the replacement of its two aging elementary schools by constructing a new 430 student K-5 school on the 44 acre wooded parkland site of the existing school and athletic facilities on Cross Street. The new building was conceived as a camp-like cluster of core elements anchoring two classroom wings. Its design employs shed roofs, a cantilevered entrance canopy, and natural materials including cedar siding and trim. As such, the treatment of the site design sought to complement the use of natural materials incorporated in the building design wherever possible. The scope of work included siting the new building adjacent to the existing school, which needed to remain in active use during all phases of construction, creating a new tot lot, creating additional parking for faculty, staff and visitors without disturbing existing parking areas, and maintaining existing mature vegetation to the greatest extent practicable. The existing site consisted of dense, mature pines and oaks, and it was mandated that the new building must not be seen from the roadway or any abutting property. A complex phasing plan was developed that successfully addressed these needs- the new building is not visible from the roadway, and careful grading and preservation of mature vegetation served to frame the new building along the entrance drive.
The existing site consisted of dense, mature pines and oaks, and it was mandated that the new building must not be seen from the roadway or any abutting property
VWA Senior Landscape Architect Michael Dowhan served as Project Manager/Design Director for the Chickering Elementary School while serving as Associate Principal at Geller Associates Inc. Project responsibilities included schematic design, design development, final design, coordination of all subconsultants, and overall project management. Project Team: Flansburgh Associates, Inc. – Architects; Geller Associates, Inc. – Landscape Architects; Beta Group – Civil Engineers.
WOOD END ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Reading, Massachusetts
This project involved the development of a new 404 student K-5 elementary school located on an 11-acre Town-owned site in Reading Massachusetts. The project scope included building siting, parking and circulation design, layout and coordination of all site improvements, grading design, and planting design. The locations of all the proposed site elements (building, parking/drives, athletic fields) were carefully selected with respect to locations of wetlands, ledge, and topography; proximity to abutting residential areas; access routes to the site (both vehicular and pedestrian); and on-site circulation and elemental relationships (parking and drives are located between the building and the athletic fields for access to both). The site plan sought to reduce the impacts associated with development by minimizing to the best extent practicable the amount of forest removal, ledge removal and grading. The building was sited so as not to disturb any existing wetlands, with the classroom wing facing south for maximum energy efficiency and access to the wetland area and outdoor classrooms. In order to fit all programmatic elements onto the severely constrained site, a terraced, accessible retention basin was developed which also doubled as outdoor play space. Responsibilities also included filing an Environmental Notification Form with the State Executive Office of Environmental Affairs
In order to fit all programmatic elements onto the severely constrained site, a terraced, accessible retention basin was developed which also doubled as outdoor play space
VWA Senior Landscape Architect Michael Dowhan served as Project Manager/Design Director for the Wood End Elementary School while serving as Associate Principal at Geller Associates Inc. Project responsibilities included schematic design, design development, final design, coordination of all subconsultants, and overall project management. Project Team: Flansburgh Associates, Inc. – Architects; Geller Associates, Inc. – Landscape Architects; DeVellis Associates – Civil Engineers.
GERARD A. GUILMETTE ELEMENTARY | MIDDLE SCHOOL Lawrence, Massachusetts
The Gerard A. Guimette Elementary/Middle School is a 1,250 student, 175,000 s.f. K-8 school located on the site of the former 7-acre Mullaney Park in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The project was part of the city’s comprehensive 10-year school replacement program. The project scope included building siting, grading design, parking and circulation design, planting design, playground areas, and the layout and coordination of all site improvements, including lighting, bollards, bike racks, trash receptacles, benches, flag poles, fences, walls, and pavements. The site design included the complex task of siting the building within existing mature vegetation, then supplementing the vegetation with new plantings that further create and define outdoor “rooms�. This was accomplished while continuously maintaining defensible spaces, particularly at building corners. A highlight of the site design includes an outdoor amphitheater adjacent to the gymnasium and cafeteria wing that serves as outdoor performing arts space and overflow playground space. An existing Little League field was reconstructed on the site, complete with new lighting and irrigation, and two new basketball courts were also constructed adjacent to the field. Site design objectives had to be creatively balanced with concerns for security needs, such as continuous fencing around the perimeter of the site and emergency vehicular access around the entire building perimeter. Responsibilities also included filing an Environmental Notification Form with the State Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
A highlight of the site design includes an outdoor amphitheater adjacent to the gymnasium and cafeteria wing that serves as outdoor performing arts space and overflow playground space
VWA Senior Landscape Architect Michael Dowhan served as Project Manager/Design Director for the Gerard A. Guilmette Elementary | Middle School while serving as Associate Principal at Geller Associates Inc. Project responsibilities included schematic design, design development, final design, coordination of all subconsultants, and overall project management. Project Team: Flansburgh Associates, Inc. – Architects; Geller Associates, Inc. – Landscape Architects; Beta Group – Civil Engineers.
EDWARD F. PARTHUM ELEMENTARY | MIDDLE SCHOOL Lawrence, Massachusetts
The Edward F. Parthum Elementary/Middle School is a 1,250 student, 175,000 s.f. K-8 school located on the site of the former 6-acre Lorenz Playstead in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The project was part of the city’s comprehensive 10-year school replacement program. The project scope included building siting, parking and circulation design, playground area design, layout and coordination of all site improvements, grading design, and planting design. The discovery of fill on much of the site necessitated locating the building along a steep 30-foot east-facing slope. Parking is located on the lower level of the site, and a series of switch-back ramps lead to the faculty/staff entrances, as well as an outdoor tot lot located at the core of the building. The main student entrances and bus drop-offs are located on the upper level, with a separate entrance for kindergarten students. A complex construction sequence plan was developed to allow continuous use and access to the existing Little League fields on the property during all phases of the construction. Upon completion of the building construction, the ball fields were reconstructed on the site, complete with new lighting and irrigation. Responsibilities also included filing an Environmental Notification Form with the State Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
Parking is located on the lower level of the site, and a series of switchback ramps lead to the faculty/staff entrances, as well as an outdoor tot lot located at the core of the building
VWA Senior Landscape Architect Michael Dowhan served as Project Manager/Design Director for the Edward F. Parthum Elementary | Middle School while serving as Associate Principal at Geller Associates Inc. Project responsibilities included schematic design, design development, final design, coordination of all subconsultants, and overall project management. Project Team: Flansburgh Associates, Inc. – Architects; Geller Associates, Inc. – Landscape Architects; Beta Group – Civil Engineers.
WITCHCRAFT HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Salem, Massachusetts
The Witchcraft Heights Elementary School, located in Salem Massachusetts, underwent a substantial renovation/addition project. The project scope included siting the building’s new addition, grading design, parking and circulation design, planting design, playground areas, and the layout and coordination of all site improvements, including lighting, bollards, bike racks, trash receptacles, benches, flag poles, fences, walls, and pavements. The site design included the development of a series of outdoor classrooms aimed to foster increased environmental awareness among the students. Responsibilities also included filing an Environmental Notification Form with the State Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
The site design included the development of a series of outdoor classrooms aimed to foster increased environmental awareness among the students
VWA Senior Landscape Architect Michael Dowhan served as Project Manager/Design Director for the Witchcraft Heights Elementary School while serving as Associate Principal at Geller Associates Inc. Project responsibilities included schematic design, design development, final design, coordination of all subconsultants, and overall project management. Project Team: Flansburgh Associates, Inc. – Architects; Geller Associates, Inc. – Landscape Architects; Judith Nitsch, Inc. – Civil Engineers.
P.S. 3 PRIMARY AND M.S. 4 MIDDLE SCHOOLS Jersey City, New Jersey
The P.S. 3 Primary and M.S. 4 Middle Schools in Jersey City, New Jersey are located in a reorganized district in the heart of downtown Jersey City. They share a six-acre site that occupies the majority of four city blocks bordered by Grand Street, Bright Street, Monmouth Street, and Jersey Avenue. The schools serve as a replacement for the original P.S. #3, Jersey City’s oldest operating school, which was built in 1909. The elementary school was designed as a three-story, 114,500 SF building that accommodates 640 students, with four classrooms per grade from Pre-K through grade 5, as well as a multi-purpose auditorium which directly connects to an outdoor amphitheater. The middle school was designed as a four-story, 167,000 SF building that accommodates 900 students, with thirty-eight classrooms for grades 6 through 8. The main focus of the site design sought to maximize the useable open space on the site while creating informal separation between play areas for prek, kindergarten, elementary and middle school students. The site design first established a hierarchy of circulation and use areas by creating a formal main entrance to the site from Bright Street between the two buildings that features a grove of Aristocrat Pear trees set in large rectangular lawn panels. The secondary entrance at Monmouth Street includes a 16-foot wide English Yew-lined walkway that acts as the opposite terminus of the circulation “spine” that bisects the site. This linear corridor acts as a structuring and unifying element within the pedestrian circulation network of the campus. The buildings, elementary play yards, basketball courts, and gathering areas are all directly connected to this system.
Highlights of the elementary school play yard include resilient rubber surface play areas enclosed by bench-height concrete seat wall/planters as well as a large outdoor amphitheatre that extends from the auditorium of the elementary school. The middle school exterior open areas include an arts/technology courtyard to the north and an outdoor classroom/assembly space to the south. Seat walls and generous planting areas serve as a buffer between student areas and abutting properties in the arts/technology courtyard, and a 4-6 foot grade change and large canopy and understory perimeter plantings act as an edge and enclosing element in the outdoor classroom/assembly space to the south
All of the open areas within the campus are designed to varying scales dependent on their uses, with a simple palette of materials (precast concrete benches and planters, concrete walks, resilient rubber surfacing, modular block seat walls and retaining walls, and canopy plantings) serving as unifying elements throughout. Significant site preparation work was required for the property, including demolition of several buildings, elimination of two streets, relocation of several major utilities, and a comprehensive soil remediation program. The schools and the site were designed using present-day U.S.G.B.C. LEED principles.
The linear corridor acts as a structuring and unifying element within the pedestrian circulation network of the campus. The buildings, elementary play yards, basketball courts, and gathering areas are all directly connected to this system.
VWA Senior Landscape Architect Michael Dowhan served as Project Manager and Project Landscape Architect for the P.S. 3 Elementary and M. S. 4 Middle Schools while serving as Regional Chief Landscape Architect at Edwards and Kelcey. Project responsibilities included schematic design, design development, final design, coordination of all subconsultants, and overall project management. Project Team: Gruzen Samton, Inc. – Architects; Edwards and Kelcey – Landscape Architects, Civil Engineers, Geotechnical Engineers, Land Surveyors.
CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL Newark, New Jersey
Newark Public Schools and the New Jersey School Development Authority developed a new High School to serve the Central Ward of Newark, New Jersey. The 260,000 SF school, designed to accommodate 1,200 students in grades 9-12, is located on a city block bordered by 17th Avenue, 18th Avenue, and Boyd Street on the site of the former GE Light Bulb Factory. The school’s program and design reflects and supports the new aspirations for the city’s educational program, and also helps to support and reinforce community change in Newark. Similar to most urban districts, the Newark Public Schools Department wants their educational environments to improve learning and attendance, prepare students for college or work, and to include parents and neighbors in the life of the schools.
The building occupies a densely urban site abutted by residential townhouses to the north, east and west, and property marked for future development as additional athletic facilities to the south. It is designed as two separate wings- athletic and academic- with a central entrance corridor acting as a connecting and unifying element. The athletic wing is located centrally within the site, and is abutted by a regulation-sized football field to its west. Dense, large plantings of Austrian Pine and Douglas Fir along the west property line act as a light and noise buffer between the field and the adjacent residential community. The building design for the academic wing seeks to acknowledge the scale and character of the adjacent residential townhouses, and the landscape design reinforces this notion through the use of terraced “gardens� of River Birch, Stewartia, and ornamental grasses between the building and the street. The River Birch-lined entrance courtyards to the north and south aid in scale transition and provided shaded seating areas for students. Indoor plantings of various species of Bamboo were introduced through the main entrance corridor, connecting the north and south courtyards by providing an extension of the plant materials through the building. The various elements throughout the site are linked through a consistent palette of colored concrete paving, precast concrete bollards, and brick- faced seat walls with cast stone coping. The site is framed along the street on 3 sides by a consistent row of urban tolerant London Plane Trees.
Site security was a critical component of the design. To achieve security goals without compromising aesthetics, a custom-designed ornamental metal security fence and block-faced concrete column system was developed for installation around the perimeter of the parking lot, football field, and day care center. The 10’ tall individual chain link panels are vandal resistant and individually replaceable, while the 12’ tall columns act as a unifying design element with the building finishes.
The building design for the academic wing seeks to acknowledge the scale and character of the adjacent residential townhouses, and the landscape design reinforces this notion through the use of terraced “gardens� of River Birch, Stewartia, and ornamental grasses between the building and the street
VWA Senior Landscape Architect Michael Dowhan served as Project Manager and Project Landscape Architect for Central High School while serving as Regional Chief Landscape Architect at Edwards and Kelcey. Project responsibilities included schematic design, design development, final design, coordination of all subconsultants, and overall project management. Project Team: Johnson Jones – Architect of Record; Gruzen Samton, Inc. – Design Architect; Edwards and Kelcey – Landscape Architects, Civil Engineers, Geotechnical Engineers, Land Surveyors.
LAWRENCE HIGH SCHOOL Lawrence, Massachusetts
The City of Lawrence, Massachusetts recently undertook a comprehensive school replacement program, intended to upgrade the city’s educational facilities over a ten-year period. As part of the program, a needs analysis was developed that determined a new high school was required to replace the existing school, which was inadequate in terms of size and facilities and was unable to meets current and future enrollment needs. The result was the design of a new 3,000 student, 545,000 SF high school on the 32-acre site of the existing Veterans Memorial Park and Stadium. The comprehensive site design included the creation of a landscape armature that extends the building grid system into the site to provide a framework for the design of outdoor rooms. The treelined main entrance road bisects the building, creating a distinct arrival sequence while allowing nearly all of the sites’ 450 parking spaces to remain concealed in the rear. Over 500 new native deciduous trees were introduced on the site to help frame the building and define the site’s open spaces. New athletic fields were also designed as part of the school campus, including a boy’s baseball field, a girl’s softball field, and the renovation of an existing 9,000-seat football stadium. Nature trails connecting through nearby wetlands were designed to serve as outdoor classrooms. The project included filing Environmental Notification Forms with the State EPA, and consequently assisting with the development of an Environmental Impact Report.
Over 500 new native deciduous trees were introduced on the site to help frame the building and define the site’s open spaces
VWA Senior Landscape Architect Michael Dowhan served as Project Manager/Design Director for the Lawrence High School while serving as Associate Principal at Geller Associates Inc. Project responsibilities included schematic design, design development, coordination of all subconsultants, and overall project management. Project Team: Flansburgh Associates, Inc. – Architects; Geller Associates, Inc. – Landscape Architects; Beta Group – Civil Engineers.
Credits Freeman Centennial Elementary School Images: Flansburgh Architects
Chickering Elementary School Photos: Flansburgh Architects
Wood End Elementary School Photos: Flansburgh Architects
Guilmette Elementary | Middle School Photos: Flansburgh Architects Aerial Photo: Microsoft Corp.
Parthum Elementary | Middle School Photos: Flansburgh Architects Aerial Photos: Microsoft Corp.
Witchcraft Heights Elementary School Photos: Flansburgh Architects Aerial Photos: Microsoft Corp.
P.S. 3 Elementary and M.S. 4 Middle Schools Photos: Gruzen Samton Architects Aerial Photo: Microsoft Corp. Line Drawings: Edwards & Kelcey
Central High School Photos: City of Newark, NJ Aerial Photo: Microsoft Corp. Line Drawings: Edwards & Kelcey
Lawrence High School Photos: Flansburgh Architects
VERI | WATERMAN ASSOCIATES LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE URBAN DESIGN PLANNING
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