Full STEAM Ahead

Framingham Fuller Middle School
Framingham, Massachusetts

In 2017, SMMA was engaged to provide Owner’s Project Manager (OPM) services for the City of Framingham. The firm provided OPM Services on a new 137,000 sf facility replacing the existing middle school on its current site. The new school is located on the open space which now exists as a parking lot between the existing Fuller Middle School and the Farley School. This location makes it possible to eliminate temporary swing space expenses and minimize disruption to ongoing educational activities by leaving the existing school in operation during the construction phase.

View of dining commons and daylighting at Fuller Middle School
 
Hands-on Education

The project builds on the District's educational program by embodying its stated commitment to a 21st century STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) student-centered education, a commitment which has already been acted upon through advanced teaching and learning programs at the elementary school level in preparation for this project. STEAM-compatible educational environments are achieved through the creation of student-driven, problem-based, and hands-on project space within the school's proposed three floor plans. These spaces are provided together with a high degree of visual and functional connectedness.

 

Ground level view of dining commons and daylighting at Fuller Middle School

The new school floor plan features two segmented arcs of classrooms facing one another across an open three-story Learning Commons atrium. Classroom clusters can be flexibly arranged within the floors by utilizing monumental stairs, aggregating floors of cohort classrooms. At the center of each one of these cohorts is a collaboration space which is co-located with a cohort satellite station area. The Learning Commons is surrounded by an array of common-shared spaces for the school community, including: the media center, cafeteria, maker space, music and art classrooms, fabrication lab, gymnasium, and auditorium. The project, designed by Jonathan Levi Architects and constructed by Consigli Construction Co., opened in August 2021.

Atrium and stairs at the Fuller Middle School in Massachusetts