This sketch, along with 3 others, was submitted to the Runkle School Building Committee on April 7th. It will be presented again at a public meeting on Thursday, April 16th at 8:00 a.m. in the Runkle cafeteria. There is not cost information available at this time for any of the options. Cost information will be presented to the public at the Brookline School Committee meeting on Thursday, April 30th at 7:00 at Town Hall.
Things to think about when looking at this sketch:
- Druce Street is at the bottom of the page, Clinton Road is at the top.
- Blue ink represents existing structures, black in represents new structures.
- The ground/basement floor is on the far right of the page, the main/1st floor is in the lower left and the upper floor is in the upper left of the page.
- The three sciences rooms you see each represent a 6th, 7th or 8th grade “homeroom” as well. (This is why you only see 2 classrooms for each of those grades.)
Please use the comment field below to share your thoughts about this design. What do you like and dislike about this concept? As this is an early sketch, comments that focus on large issues of layout, site use, etc. will be most useful at this phase.
Links to other options:
For more information, see previous Renovation Report blog entries:
(http://beta NULL.runkle NULL.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/rnk-opt-a NULL.jpg)
Based on this concept, how much outdoor play space will be maintained? This option along with C where the Kindergarten wing is parallel to Chesham st. seem to offer the most outdoor space. Does this indicate leveling the ground in the back?
This scenario may actually provide 3 distinct play areas of decent size although the flow between them isn’t great. Our current field, although larger than this one, has a lot of unusable sloping hill. This plan replaces the hill with the new wing but creates a large field/play area to the left of the 1st grade rooms (where the current parking lot and BB courts are). The architects plan to address the open space questions at tomorrow’s meeting so we can ask about re-grading.
My comments are general comments about all 4 sketches:
1. My first reaction when I saw the sketches was, “Where’s the Auditorium?” At least 3 parents that attended the input meeting said that they really wanted to have an Auditorium back at the school. My guess is that the Multi-Purpose room was created as a temporary solution to a space problem. It is not an ideal solution. An Auditorium is the heart of a school, where the community comes together to celebrate and share in recitals, performances, meetings, lectures etc. The Multi-Purpose room did not perform up to this task.
The space allocated for the Multi-Purpose room (Auditorium) in the sketches also seems inadequate. The space appears to be very long and narrow which would make it very difficult for most of the audience to see what’s happening on the stage.
The locations of the Multi- Purpose room (Auditorium) and the Gym also don’t make sense to me. It seems to me like their locations should be swapped. The Auditorium should be located on the main level (at the heart) of the school along with the Library and the Main Office
2. It appears that the Gym is bigger than what we have now, which is great. Will it have a retracting wall so that the space can be divided in half when needed? What happened to the idea of a second “gym” space that was mentioned at the meeting? A second space with a regular height ceiling that could be used for yoga, dance etc? This space could be the “multi-purpose room”. It seems like instead of that space there are 2 big locker rooms. Who would be using those locker rooms? Do they have showers in them? Do the kids have time to change clothes before and after PE during the day? Are they mostly for after school sports?
3. It appears that the Cafeteria is bigger than what we have now. I believe it is supposed to be able to accommodate 3 lunches instead of the 5 or so that we have now. What improvements will be put in place to handle the acoustics and traffic flow that will be necessary to create a space where students have enough time to get through the lunch line and still have time to eat their lunch in a room with appropriate noise levels?
By moving the Cafeteria to the back of the building, how will the delivery trucks drop off their supplies? It looks like there is a receiving area at the front of the building. Will delivery people be bringing supplies in from the front and walking them through the building or will they be pulling into the staff parking lot at the rear, that is adjacent to the playground? This could be a safety hazard.
4. Are the 3 RED classrooms dedicated space for RED only, where they will be unused by the school all day? If so, this seems to defeat one of the goals of the renovation which is to provide more space for the entire school.
5. It seems like we would lose a lot of outdoor play space with options A and B. (How wide is that courtyard in option B?)
In general, I like option C the best, but I would swap the locations for the Gym “wing” and the Multi “wing” and I would put in an Auditorium instead of a Multi-Purpose Room. Maybe there could be a couple of small practice rooms next to the music room so that kids wouldn’t have to play their instruments out in the hallway like they do now.
Joanne Shaughnessy – 3J parent and RASP volunteer
I’m so happy to read your comments Joanne. I agree with so many of these comments and I too am looking for clarification on certain spaces.
Gym… where is the second activity space? This is a program that affects all of the students in the school.
I only see one plan with a meeting space by the front entry. I see many mornings where meetings are currently held in the cafeteria which feels like the right place for administration and parents to have a gathering point for discussion. I wonder what the space would look like in the basement.
Were the architects able to put windows in all rooms (music, ot, pt)?
..Sandy Costello – 4St, 3Hal, KP parent and RASP volunteer