A True Community School

By Daniel W. Cecil, AIA, partner, and Rodney S. Boynton, AIA, principal, Harriman Associates

A new school in a small town has to be more than a school. No one knows that more than the people of Litchfield, Maine — population 2,650.

When an arsonist made a new school a necessity, they approved a design that was also a community center. A place for town meetings and after-school programs. A building that would echo the rural traditions of their 220-year old town. And, as it turned out, a refuge for town residents during a massive ice storm that knocked out power in the state for weeks.

Planning the new Carrie Ricker Middle School began soon after a fire leveled Litchfield Central School in March 1994. The one-story, wood-frame building had educated town children for almost fifty years, since 1948. It was a school grandparents visited with their grandchildren to point out which room had been theirs, a school that held more memories than desks and chairs. And its destruction, especially through arson by a town resident, was devastating.

But within a few months, emergency state funding was promised, and a building committee was hard at work with architects and engineers from Harriman Associates. The town saw an opportunity for a building with the space and layout that could make up for such things as the lack of a town library and whose play fields would provide added opportunities for community recreation programs.

Getting to "wow"
Questionnaires and meetings
Defining the look
An historic working bell
Multiple uses
Refuge in a storm


Getting to "wow"
The road to the new school that opened three years later was an intensive, collaborative undertaking. The time and energy required surprised many. For committee members, parents, teachers, and administrators, planning the new school amounted to another job. There were over 250 building committee meetings.

But the town's willingness to be good consumers, actively involved throughout all stages of the project, paid off. The give-and-take process of continually clarifying and refining the design helped everyone understand what would be included and what would not -- and resulted in a reaction of "Oh, wow!" not "Oh, no."
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Questionnaires and meetings
Architects gave questionnaires to every teacher, administrator, and staff person, asking what was needed and what was on their "wish" list. Interviews were then held to refine the information. After compiling and analyzing the data, architects reviewed it with the building committee, offering suggestions to resolve conflicting needs and wishes.

The design became a true community-wide effort with input from five public meetings during the year and a half of the design process. Like traditional New England town meetings, the gatherings gave everyone a chance to express opinions and were often filled with lively debates and differing viewpoints. It fell to the architects to facilitate the discussions at the meetings and to synthesize the data for the committee to review and find consensus.
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Defining the look
The way the school would look was very important to the town. It was the first new public building in decades and although Litchfield has no Main Street per se, the school site is at a crossroads which has always been considered to be a town center. From the earliest meetings, it was clear that a traditional look was preferred.

But it's one thing to use the word; it's another for it to have the same meaning to everybody. To make certain that everyone shared the same perceptions, architects arranged tours of other schools and showed slides of other buildings, floor plans, and samples of actual building materials.

Brick that looked old, not new, and a pitched roof were agreed on. A bay window in the library. Cupolas on the roof. And the committee also wanted a working school bell in a cupola, to mirror and honor the first school in the town, built in the 1890s, and still owned by the town.
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An historic working bell
The committee also decided that the cupola should have a working bell -- not one with an electronically generated sound, but one with a clapper that made the noise. When even a used bell didn't fit the budget, a school board member discovered that a state facility being closed had a 450-pound, historic, iron bell.

Volunteers got state approval to take possession of the bell and had it refurbished. Architects found a specialist who designed a way to operate the clapper from an electric switch in the office, and Carrie Ricker Middle School had its bell, with the budget still intact.
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Multiple uses
The desire for community use of the school building had an impact on both the floor plan and the site. Classrooms are grouped in one wing which can be closed off to control access when public meetings are scheduled. The library and cafetorium are to the left and right of the main lobby and are both easily accessed after hours.

The gymnasium, where large functions like the town's annual meeting are held, is straight down the hall from the lobby and also has its own entrance. Parking areas are located near the gymnasium and the front entrance for ease of entry. Knowing the problems that street shoes cause on wood flooring, the committee opted to add removable carpeting for the gymnasium. The 12-feet by 30-feet pieces cover the floor entirely and are easily put down and removed.

Community groups are finding the school a convenient and pleasant venue, from Grange dinners to weight loss support group meetings. And a $1.5 million Twenty-First Century Learning grant from the federal government will make it possible for the school to put plans for expanded use of the building into operation.

The nearest public library is a 20-minute drive away, so there are plans for the school's library to have summer hours. An open computer lab is also on tap. Clubs and interest groups for students, currently scheduled for two days after school, may be expanded to the full week.
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Refuge in a storm
In January 1998, just four months after it opened, the school became more than a place to hold meetings or increase knowledge. It became a lifesaver for many town residents, when a massive ice storm knocked out power throughout the state for weeks.

There were heat and lights at Carrie Ricker Middle School, however, because Litchfield had enthusiastically supported installation of an emergency generator, even though it was not mandated by state or federal codes. Building and life-safety codes do require public buildings to have backup power for emergency lights, exit signs, and fire alarms. Battery packs are often chosen as the power supply, but while their initial cost is lower than a generator, required routine maintenance adds to long-term cost.

Harriman Associates engineers recommended a 100kw generator that would provide 20 percent of the total power at the school, enough to protect the entire building from a freeze-up, and to keep the cafeteria and gymnasium comfortable enough for use as a temporary shelter.

No one could have predicted that the decision would be validated so soon and that the school would become the center where relief efforts would be coordinated. Residents who had no heat at their own homes were grateful for the warmth, hot meals, and showers. Many of those whose own homes were warmed by wood stoves or generators came to the school to relieve the isolation of cabin fever. Others donated time to cook some of the 3,200 meals that were served or helped in other ways.

And in two cold, dark weeks in January, Carrie Ricker Middle School became a community center in spirit as well as design.
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Written for School Planning & Management, April 1999 issue