Town of Brookline
Brookline High School, 22 Tappan Building
Project
Brookline High School, 22 Tappan Building
Client
Town of Brookline
Location
Brookline, MA
Completion
2022
Size
118,000 GSF
Category
K-12 Education, Campus Innovations, Featured Projects
22 Tappan Street is the most expansive component of the Brookline High School Expansion and Renovation project. This new five-story academic building serves 700 students with general use classrooms, physics labs, special education suites, collaboration spaces, a library, cafeteria, 125 seat white box theatre, and administrative and support spaces.
The design of the building mirrors the ethos of the Brookline High School – that of openness, equality, and interdisciplinary collaboration. These values are expressed throughout the building. The front porch unifies the campus through a shared visual language and opens out to the public green space. The white box theater can spill out to the light and transparent cafeteria by means of a large barn door. Flexible classroom spaces are fitted with clerestory windows, providing natural light into adjacent corridors. The library and conference spaces are highly visible, with direct visual connections to the cafeteria and main circulation paths. Flexible collaboration spaces between classrooms offer informal group study and expanded classroom break-out space.
SPANNING THE GREEN LINE
The entrance to 22 Tappan spans the MBTA green line tracks, creating a safe, welcoming and accessible front door to the new freshman campus. The design and successful execution of this feature involved rigorous programmatic planning, close collaboration with the MBTA, and extensive work with consultants to ensure that the trains are neither felt nor heard as they travel under the cafeteria. This allows the building to face the historic Cypress Field, and share the civic quality present among the rest of the Brookline High School campus.
ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY
This project is the result of a highly inclusive design process with over 140 meetings with elected officials and boards, neighbors and residents, educators, and students. The 22 Tappan Building and STEM Wing Addition increase the capacity of the high school by 700 students, reflecting the city's vision of accommodating its growing student population in the coming years.
PROCESS
Conversations with BHS teachers about plan layouts for the new science classrooms
A town hall meeting takes place around a large site model of the Brookline campus
The WRA design team walk BHS teachers through a full scale mock-up of a chemistry classroom
Members of the surrounding Brookline neighborhood discuss the implications of the campus expansion
Project Consultants
Structural Engineer | LeMessurier Consultants, Inc.
Mechanical / Electrical Engineer | Rist-Frost Schumway Engineering
Civil Engineer | Nitsch Engineering
Landscape Architect | Lemon Brooke, LLC.
Interior Designer | Stefura Associates
Sustainability Design Consultant | The Green Engineer
Lighting Consultant | Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design
Acoustical Engineer | Acentech
AV Consultant | Acentech
Food Service Consultant | Crabtree McGrath Associates, Inc.
MBTA Station Designer | AECOM
Photographer | Robert Benson