This seemingly modest project encompassed four classrooms, a central gathering place, lockers, and a lower level for crafts and makers’ space. The monumental task of creating a positive, immediate presence on its 17-acre site, planning for the future build-out of a kindergarten through eighth grade campus with auditorium, playing fields, gymnasium, library, and shop facility, and also serves the school’s immediate programmatic requirements within a constrictive budget. Site planning included provisions for all new infrastructure with allowances for complete build-out. Careful consideration was given to a required DEP / NRPA approvals process and Freeport’s Planning Board approvals process. Barba Architecture worked closely with landscape architects, traffic engineers, the town planner and town engineer, to achieve full compliance. Wright-Ryan Construction was the Construction Manager and the contractor.
In addition to the nuts and bolts aspects of this project, the school had unique functional and aesthetic requirements, which we continually kept at the fore when making all planning decisions. Student activities, which include movement, art, music, and storytelling, had to be accommodated in a structure, which allowed for these activities in a light-filled, quiet building that has a sense of containment, yet is not static. By embodying this particular community’s philosophies and aesthetic we created a building which is both exciting and beautiful. The school design brought about a creative solution to a complex problem within a restrictive budget. Design, approvals, and construction were remarkably completed in one year from start to finish.
