Somerville High School Renovation & Expansion | 81 Highland Ave | Somerville

City is planning to renovate the parks around the high school, generally, from east to west. Fair to guess that city hall and an expanded public library would happen after the high school and GLX projects wrap.

But my hunch is city hall never gets renovated while Curtatone is mayor. Too many other things to spend money on. Financing GLX (city is on the hook for $50 million), doing all the planning, streetscape and property acquisition around Union Sq and Boynton Yards, building a new public safety HQ outside of Union, building Art Farm, acquiring Foss Park from the state and renovating that... Add to that the work they're doing on streetscape improvements in Davis, property acquisition in Winter Hill, parks along the GLX corridor... It's no surprise that city hall renovation will take a backseat for a few more years.
 

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City is planning to renovate the parks around the high school, generally, from east to west. Fair to guess that city hall and an expanded public library would happen after the high school and GLX projects wrap.

But my hunch is city hall never gets renovated while Curtatone is mayor. Too many other things to spend money on. Financing GLX (city is on the hook for $50 million), doing all the planning, streetscape and property acquisition around Union Sq and Boynton Yards, building a new public safety HQ outside of Union, building Art Farm, acquiring Foss Park from the state and renovating that... Add to that the work they're doing on streetscape improvements in Davis, property acquisition in Winter Hill, parks along the GLX corridor... It's no surprise that city hall renovation will take a backseat for a few more years.

that all makes sense, but they could at least paint the joint. compared to a full reno, that's chump-change and it'd go a long way towards making that building look less like some bombed-to-hell disaster out of post-WWII berlin.
 
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These kids are going to have a wonderful view once this open. I know if it was me in one of the classrooms that face the skyline, i would be staring out the window all day
 
i'm not absolutely sure -- and this will, no doubt, come off super stalker/creepy -- but i'm pretty sure i walked by you with my dog as you were taking these shots. saw a dude taking pix of the HS and thought to myself, "what are the odds that this guy is on aB and i'll soon see these photos on the site?"
 
Living right around the corner from this, I can confirm that it is truly massive. Quite the undertaking. 5 story new school building. I assume they will also be renovating the other parts of the campus when this beast can be occupied.
 

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