Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Pawtucket Elementary School Celebrates Topping Out Ceremony

  • By Matt Jones
  • 11/15/21

Officials gathered recently to celebrate the topping out of a new STEAM elementary school in Pawtucket, R.I. Representatives from the Pawtucket School District, the State of Rhode Island and the City of Pawtucket joined those from Colliers Project Leaders, the SLAM Collaborative and Gilbane Building Company to commemorate the milestone of the 93,694-square-foot Henry J. Winters Elementary School.

During the ceremony, the last beam was laid across the top of the building. The three-story facility will have space for 643 students between pre-kindergarten and fifth grade. The district partnered with the SLAM Collaborative for design and Gilbane Building Company for construction. The project had a budget of $50 million.

“In delivering this project, we’ve not only focused on client satisfaction, sustainability, safety and innovation, but also diversity and community engagement,” said Steve Duvel, Gilbane senior vice president and New England division leader, in a press release. “As we celebrate this milestone and look toward the future of the project, we further our commitment to Pawtucket, the state of Rhode Island and the generations of students who will call this building home.”

Upgrades from the previous facility will include a student drop-off area designed for optimal traffic flow, increased security measures and energy-efficient HVAC systems.

“We know that our students deserve the best educational experience we can give them, and we must maintain our commitment to them, their teachers and the school department to further opportunities and engage in education through better schools and classrooms,” said Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien in June 2021.

Funding for the school came as part of a $220-million bond package that Pawtucket voters approved in 2018 to complete upgrades across the city’s 17 schools. The former Winters Elementary facility was demolished this past summer, and the new facility is scheduled for completion by summer 2022.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • University of Oklahoma Announces New Campus Master Plan

    The University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., recently announced that it will soon launch a new, comprehensive Campus Master Plan to guide the campus’ physical development during the next decade, according to a news release.

  • Chartwells Launches Campus Dining Evaluation Framework

    Contract food-service management provider Chartwells Higher Education recently announced the launch of BLUEPRINT, according to a news release. The evaluation framework was designed to provide a data-driven and customizable roadmap towards optimizing campus dining services and, by extension, the student experience.

  • Architectural Power for the Modern Campus Landscape

    For generations, an outdoor classroom only required a textbook and a patch of grass. Today, not only has the laptop replaced the printed pages, the rise of agile learning has turned campuses into study halls with students listening to lectures and researching topics from quads, gardens, and plazas. The challenge for architects and facility managers is to provide connectivity without cluttering the landscape with visual eyesores or creating safety hazards with extension cords.

  • Photo credit - Chuck Coates

    Florida District Modernizes Central Energy Plants at Two High Schools

    Flagler Schools, a public school district in Flagler County, Fla., recently partnered with Matern Professional Engineering to modernize the central energy plants at two of its high schools, according to a news release. The project is part of a larger, district-wide effort to reduce energy costs and operational expenses.