LOWELL — When district schools close for the summer in June, work on the Lowell High School rebuild project will really ramp up into its final construction phases, said Suffolk Construction Senior Project Manager Pannha San-Chung.
“This summer is going to be very busy getting into the north bridge demolition, the 1922 and the 1980s building work,” she told the School Building Committee during its May 2 meeting at City Hall.
The summer launches the full rollout of Phase 3 of the four-phased project that began in 2020 with the demolition of the old dentists’ office at Arcand Drive. That site became the Phase 1 construction of the new Riddick Athletic Center.
Once that two-year project was complete, site work on the redesign of the campus began in earnest with the demolition of the old Riddick Field House. In its place, rose the five-story Freshman Academy. The building anchors the corner of Arcand Drive and Father Morissette Boulevard and attaches to the newly built three-story so-called Building D, formed from the demolition of the back end of the 1980s building.
The adjoined footprint of these three buildings — Riddick, the Freshman Academy and Building D, which also houses the cafeteria, what San-Chung described as the “heart of the school” — will form an interior courtyard called the “quad.”
“The major milestone is the steel quad canopy that will connect the Freshman Academy to the gym,” San-Chung said. The canopy will run parallel to Arcand Drive and enclose the quad.
When the completed Freshman Academy welcomes students in September, they will find the space outfitted with Rulon wood ceilings in the hallways, corridor benches, wood-capped stair railings and science labs featuring the latest in casework cabinetry.
“In May, we’re looking to finish the interior finishes of [the Freshman Academy], San-Chung said. “We’re also looking to start punch lists in the next week or two working our way up from the second to fifth floor.”
Interior finishes in Building D include millwork paneling and San-Chung said the server cafeteria equipment is already in place. According to schematics, the cafeteria will also open in the fall.
In preparation for the completion of the major construction work from Phases 1 and 2, San-Chung noted that streetscape and quad site work was underway with new sidewalks, plantings and additional landscaping taking place.
Unlike the first four years of the almost $400 million, six-year construction plan that involved demolition of existing buildings and newly built structures, the remaining two years features renovation of the 1980s and 1920s building, the latter of which is more than 100 years old.
Perkins Eastman Project Manager Robin Greenberg said new windows are being installed in both the 1980s and 1920s building.
“The windows in the 1920s building offers both aesthetics and thermal properties,” she said. “We worked with the Lowell Historic Board and we came across photos of windows of what the building looked like in the 1920s, which does not match those aluminum windows you see today.”
Through that collaboration, the design team was able to replicate the 1920-style windows with 21st-century technology featuring an aluminum-clad window that is lighter and easier to open and maintain a historic look.
“The 1980s windows will come on in the next couple weeks,” Greenberg said. “They operate better and comes with an insect screen.”
Greenberg also gave an update on the two bridges that connect the campus on the west side of the Merrimack Canal — the Riddick, Freshman Academy, Building D, cafeteria and 1980s building — to the east side campus composed of the 1920s building that sits between the canal and Kirk Street. The south bridge was demolished in the summer of 2022, and steel girders placed the following spring.
“The north bridge that connects the 80s to the 1920s building is going to come down,” she said.
Like the windows, the new bridges will feature the latest design and climate technology.
“The hamster-style tunnels were a plastic bubble with no airflow and lots of heat,” Greenberg said. “We are building a bridge with an insulated roof and glass sides. Double-paned windows so we’re keeping as much sun out without blocking the sun — thermal rays will stay out.”
She said the bridges are wider, will be climate controlled and have lighting. They also have etching that makes the structure more visible to birds to prevent them from crashing into the glass-paned design.
“It should feel very different from what you currently have,” she said.
The committee voted to unanimously accept the appointments of Lowell High student members Kendrick Del Orbe, a junior, and sophomore Jannaca Lang to voting seats on the body.
Both thanked City Manager Tom Golden and the committee for the opportunity to be a student voice at the table.
“I want to thank all the incredible committee members who are actively making this happen,” Del Orbe said by text. “I think to Senator Kennedy’s bill recently passed which will help fund this project to its completion.”
Skanska Project Manager Kevin Crane told the committee that the Massachusetts School Building Authority reimbursement to date is just more than $128 million of the total maximum facilities grant of $252 million pledged by the state. The city is responsible for the balance, which Chief Financial Officer Conor Baldwin has previously said was being funded through bonds.