LOWELL — School and city staff, as well as city councilors, said Lowell High’s brand-new, state-of-the-art Riddick Athletic Center is plagued by leaks, wonky bleachers, missing and damaged equipment and broken elevators, among other construction and maintenance issues in the 36,000-sqaure-foot facility. Numerous complaints and concerns were raised during Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.
The new building replaced the old Riddick Field House, a windowless facility that constantly leaked and was demolished in 2022 after 41 years of service.
“It seems like I want the 80s gym back rather than the gym I’m looking at right now,” Councilor John Descoteaux said. “That’s how bad it is over there. We’re going down the wrong path here, folks.”
Descoteaux spoke in response to fellow Councilor Wayne Jenness’ motion requesting City Manager Tom Golden have the “proper department prepare a report on recent and continued failures in the new high school athletic center, as well as an action plan for repair and holding the developer accountable for this building and the rest of the project.”
The four-phased, almost $400 million rebuilding/renovation project was approved in 2016 and broke ground in 2020. Phases 1 and 2 consisted of new construction and have been completed, including the Riddick Athletic Center and the five-story Freshman Academy. Phases 3 and 4 involve the renovation of the existing 1892 Coburn Hall, 1922 and 1980 buildings. The entire project is expected to be complete by the summer of 2026.
The project was designed by the architect firm of Perkins Eastman, is being built by Suffolk Construction, and the owner’s project manager is Skanska. Suffolk’s guaranteed maximum price is almost $304 million, with approximately $250 million of the cost covered by the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The city of Lowell and taxpayers are responsible for financing the remaining amount.
In a detailed statement, Jenness described the numerous design, architectural and equipment failures, fit and finish issues and operational challenges he witnessed during a walkthrough of the gym last week with school staff.
“I don’t think this is abuse or vandalism as some have said,” Jenness said. “I think it’s not installed right.”
Jenness said a glycol system leaked and damaged the boys’ locker room. The additive glycol is mixed with water and is used in chilling systems, which is located in the ceiling above the locker room.
“The ceiling/drywall — all of it had to be torn out and replaced after this leak,” he said.
This past July, a leak in an HVAC condensate pump failed, and flooded the athletic storage area that held expensive sports equipment.
Jenness listed faulty door locksets, misaligned exterior doors that are secured with desks, missing caulking, improperly cut concrete blocks, cracking concrete in the courtyard, floor seams pulling apart, workout room mirrors mounted too close to the floor without floor trim or baseboards resulting in numerous cracks, wonky bleachers, as well as people getting stuck in elevators — sometimes hours at a time and needing to be rescued by Lowell firefighters.
“How do we ensure that we don’t repeat these issues with the remaining phases of the project?” Jenness said. “We need to make sure that we take the time to get it right now or we’re going to be chasing this as long as this building exists.”
LHS Athletic Director Scott Ouellet also addressed the council. He was named to the position in July 2023 to replace former athletic director Dave Lezenski who was put on leave in January 2023 for reasons that remain unclear.
City Building Commissioner Dave Fuller issued the building’s certificate of occupancy in August 2022, after a walkthrough with Suffolk. The massive, 3,000-person capacity structure includes volleyball and basketball courts, a long-jump pit, track-and-field lanes and batting cages.
Ouellet said he has “reached my breaking point” with the building’s issues.
“We need someone in there, very qualified, who knows the codes, good construction and who can go in and point things out and defend the city of Lowell,” Ouellet said. He stood at the podium facing the council while wearing a maroon Lowell Track & Field jacket.
“That’s what we need,” he said. “Because it’s gotten too bad. Every day something comes up in there.”
Both the School Committee and the City Council are responsible for school buildings. The school district uses the buildings, but almost all are owned by the city. The district is responsible for custodial services, like cleaning, while the city is responsible for repairs.
Which side of city operations is responsible for repairs in a new building was raised by Councilor Erik Gitschier, who suggested a lack of sufficient and properly trained maintenance staff was contributing to the buildingwide problems.
The district has more than 15,000 students spread across 28 schools comprising 3 million square feet of space. The LHS rebuild and renovation project alone is 625,000 square feet of that portfolio, yet the city has only 13 skilled trades staff within the Lands and Building Division responding to work orders in that school building territory in addition to the other municipal buildings.
“We better get a facilities department together real fast,” Gitschier said. “The oversight is not good on our end. We don’t even know how to operate elevators or run anything over there. That doesn’t come back to either one of the contractors over there, that comes back to us.”
Under direct questioning from the council, Skanska Project Manager Jim Dowd said both the city and school administrations were aware of the issues raised by Jenness and other councilors.
“All of these items are addressed every week in the owner-architect-contractor meeting that we have every Thursday with the City Manager’s Office, with Department of Public Works, with representatives of the School Department,” Dowd said. “They are all fully aware of those.”
He added, “I grew up in Lowell. I understand what this project is for Lowell. I put every ounce of effort I can into it,” but deferred more questions to Suffolk.
The council voted to schedule a joint city/school Facilities Subcommittee meeting to which Suffolk would be invited to answer more direct questions. At Jenness’ insistence, Assistant City Manager Shawn Machado will provide the council with archived and ongoing summaries of the OAC meetings.
School district spokesperson Jennifer Myers said Superintendent of Schools Liam Skinner was aware of issues discussed at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
“We appreciate the concern shown by several Councilors on this topic and are confident this sharpened focus will be beneficial to Lowell High School’s student athletes who deserve to train and compete in the best facility possible, the level of facility they were promised,” she said by email on Wednesday. “Lowell High School leadership and personnel will continue to provide feedback to City and construction officials regarding structural and operational issues that arise within the new Riddick Athletic Center. We are hopeful that addressing them now while contractors remain on-site will remedy the issues moving forward.”