Education Facilities

High-rise public school set for construction in Boston

Sept. 7, 2021
2 min read

The Josiah Quincy Upper School (JQUS), a 650-student public school, is set to rise on a one-acre site in Boston’s dense Chinatown neighborhood. The six-story, 178,000-sf building will house grades 6 through 12.

The HMFH-designed facility will feature healthy spaces that support student success and wellbeing. Among these spaces will be rooftop outdoor classrooms; learning spaces for music, art, and science; advanced art quality systems; a student-grown garden; and a variety of athletic and fitness spaces.

JQUS will be equipped with enhanced air filtering and an innovative fresh air make-up system to ensure clean indoor air quality, which will benefit the school greatly due to the airborne pollution that will migrate from the adjacent I-90 and I-93 highways. Additionally, the entire school will be powered by electricity, including the full-service kitchen. Rooftop photovoltaic arrays will provide 14% of the power needed to operate the school.

The project will be located adjacent to the Josiah Quincy Elementary School and within walking distance to several neighborhoods. IN addition to HMFH, the buuild team includes Turner Construction as the general contractor and Skanska USA Building as the project manager. Construction is slated to being this fall with the new school completing in time for the 2024-2025 school year.

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