Albert F. Argenziano School at Lincoln Park

Overview

The old Lincoln Park School, constructed in the mid 1970s, had several major deficiencies. Bounded by a railroad right-of-way, there was substantial noise pollution during school hours. The building, designed as a K-5 elementary school on the “open classroom model,” was programmatically unresponsive to Somerville’s new K-8 grade distribution. It also lacked appropriate square footage and was substantially deficient in meeting modern building code standards for energy conservation.

SMMA’s design for the new Albert F. Argenziano School overcomes these deficiencies while conserving active recreation space on the site and providing safer access for the students from busy Washington Street. The new school orients all classroom and teaching spaces toward Lincoln Park, creating a buffer from the adjacent railroad right-of-way and mitigating the noise and vibration that had long been a distraction in the old school.

The new school maintains the K-8 grade distribution in a 3- floor, conventional classroom model, foregoing the “open classroom model” Albert Argenziano/lincoln park community school, somerville, MAin favor of one more beneficial to the growing student population.

The new Argenziano school has also met high standards for energy conservation, including using no VOC paints and low VOC carpets, materials, and casework, accomplishing water efficiency by the re-use of a geo-thermal test bore-hole as an irrigation well for the school’s fields. SMMA’s sustainable-conscious design allowed the new school to obtain an MTC grant for photo-voltaic panel usage.

The new Albert F. Argenziano School opened in September 2007.