Re: Winsor School Expansion
Winsor plans expansion in Longwood
By Sara Brown
Globe Correspondent / February 12, 2011
The Winsor School yesterday disclosed plans for a major expansion to its 100-year-old campus, including a 10-story building and several hundred parking spaces in the busy Longwood Medical Area.
Plans for the independent girls? school were outlined in a letter of intent submitted to the Boston Redevelopment Authority and included the construction of a 300,000-square-foot, 10-story mixed use building at Brookline and Longwood avenues.
The proposed expansion ?will anchor the Winsor School at its current location for generations to come?? and ?provide a unique opportunity for the continued growth?? of the Longwood Medical Area, according to a letter from Thomas J. Hynes Jr. of Colliers International, the school?s real estate firm.
Winsor apparently plans to lease some of the 10-story building. Hynes?s letter said Winsor wanted to dedicate some of its ?underutilized?? property to defray costs of running the school. School officials said last night that the proposed Longwood Avenue high-rise ?will house Longwood Medical Area-related uses such as life sciences or?? research and development.
Other plans for the 7.4 acre campus include a new, 110,000-square-foot academic building that would take the place of an existing parking lot and gymnasium near Pilgrim and Short streets; a 30,000-square-foot addition to an existing academic building; and two parking lots beneath the two new buildings. The lots would add nearly 500 parking spots.
The campus? two large athletic fields would be preserved, and 60 percent of the campus would remain open space, the school said.
Councilor Michael P. Ross, who represents the Fenway neighborhood on the City Council, reacted positively last night, but said the city and residents will need to look at it closely.
?The project is sizable and will have to be vetted,?? said Ross, noting that it is in the early stages. ?I?m very interested in seeing what the residents in the community say about it.??
Ross said that ?it is good they found a way to remain in the neighborhood,?? adding that the school?s location in the Longwood Medical Area is ?the last place you?d expect to see a school of this kind, or any kind.??
With open space from athletic fields, he said, the school has a calming effect on the area. The project would ?allow them to stay there for the foreseeable future,?? he pointed out.
According to the school, the additions will provide much-needed academic facilities for its 435 students in grades 5 through 12. Hynes said in his letter that Winsor envisions an expansion ?without materially growing enrollment.??
?Our focus is on improving the quality of the educational experience for our student body, rather than on increasing its size,?? said Joseph Broughton, a spokesman for the school.
The school has said that it hopes to break ground in fall 2012 or 2013. According to the letter submitted to the BRA, the project will require a review under Boston zoning code.
The first building constructed would ?house centers for performing arts and for athletics and wellness,?? Broughton said last night.
Mary Pickard Winsor founded the school in 1886, teaching eight girls in a Beacon Hill home. The Longwood campus opened in 1910.
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Winsor students review a model of proposed centers for performing arts and athletics and wellness with architect Mark Oldham. Details of that project and potential future campus plans will continue to be shared with the school community this winter.
Winsor Seeks City Approval for Campus Plans
A"Letter of Intent" outlining Winsor's campus plans has been submitted to the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Submitted on February 11, 2011, this is a key initial step in seeking the city's approval for the school's proposed new centers for performing arts and athletics and wellness as well as for other long-term plans for potential future development.
The letter outlines three proposed phases of the project, which together will "anchor the Winsor School at its current location for generations to come."
The first phase, now being designed by William Rawn Associates, includes the much-discussed new centers for performing arts and for athletics and wellness. Those facilities have long been identified as the school's most outdated and were confirmed as the most urgent space needs through a master planning process in 2009. The proposed centers would total 110,000 square feet and be built on the site of the present gymnasium and parking lot.
A future phase of the campus plan would involve building a "courtyard addition" of classroom space off of the original academic building. The wing, totaling about 30,000 square feet, was also proposed in the 2009 master plan.
Another future phase of the campus plan seeks approval for a potential 10-story mixed-use building on corner of Brookline and Longwood Avenues. Any such building would be developed under a ground lease and dedicated to "uses consistent with the Longwood Medical Area context," such as life sciences or research and development. No specific users have been identified and we are at the early stages of planning for this building.
The document notes that Winsor will preserve both athletic fields and that the majority of the campus-nearly 60 percent-will remain open space.
The Boston Globe and Boston Business Journal both reported on the submission, which is available on the BRA website. As noted in the letter, Winsor will seek designation of the campus as a "Planned Development Area."
As a whole, the multi-phased plan aims "to help Winsor continue to provide an outstanding and well-rounded education within a premier campus setting at a central urban location."
While initial reports in the media focus on the future mixed-use building, the centers for performing arts and athletics/wellness are the first phase of the project. Pending approvals, the school hopes to break ground on that initial phase of the project by 2013.
The Letter of Intent was submitted on the school's behalf by Colliers International, a real estate firm working with the school on its campus projects. More information about the project is still being developed and will be submitted to the BRA in a "Project Notification Form." The submission of the PNF, a far lengthier and more comprehensive document, will also start the public review process for the project.
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