Adaptive Reuse Study: Abington Center School
Abington Center School, Abington MA
ADAPTIVE REUSE STUDY: ABINGTON CENTER SCHOOL
CLIENT: MassDevelopment and Town of Abington, MA
TEAM: Barrett Planning Group Judi Barrett, Principal; Elizabeth Haney, Project Manager; Catherine Dennison and Alexis Lanzillotta, Project Support.
As on-call consultants for MassDevelopment, Barrett Planning Group was selected to assist the Town of Abington on an adaptive reuse study for its Center School. This study evaluated the feasibility of the school’s reuse for affordable housing within the context of funding realities as well as community wishes and concerns.
Barrett Planning Group began by conducting a site visit to assess site-specific opportunities and constraints, including the school’s primarily residential location, valued wooded areas, and community ballfield. The site also presented challenges with the underlying geology, where the predominantly shallow bedrock could create additional costs to excavation.
Site-specific considerations were also illuminated through the community engagement process, which included an online survey and community engagement session to gather public input. These tools underscored the general community desire to preserve access to the fields and wooded areas and concerns about the scale of potential redevelopment — but also a desire for affordable housing for seniors. Interviews and research from case study communities helped illustrate the challenge of scale in trying to create financially feasible affordable housing while staying within the footprint of historic schools. In all case studies, adaptive reuse of historic schools to create affordable housing involved new construction of some units, in addition to creating units within the historic school.
In this project, Barrett Planning Group worked closely with Town staff, representatives to the Abington Affordable Housing Trust, as well as MassDevelopment, meeting regularly to move the project forward and ensure equitable community input. Leveraging interviews with several developers and a code review by Habeeb and Associates, Barrett Planning Group made final recommendations that the Town engage the developer community in an RFI process, to give the town more information about what design and unit count might make a feasible project. BPG also encouraged the town to clarify the status of the site’s ballfield, as well as pursue National Historic Designation for the school if the Town wishes to pursue housing.
Barrett Planning Group LLC provides high-quality, customized planning and community development services for cities and towns and non-profit organizations throughout greater Massachusetts and New England. Barrett Planning Group is known for our creative approach to planning and problem-solving, our expertise as trainers and technical assistance providers, our attentiveness to clients, and our expertise in capacity building.
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