Lexington, MA – Erland Construction announced it has completed construction on Cotting School’s Campus Center of Excellence.
In 2020, Erland, alongside ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge, kicked off the construction of Cotting’s new 25,000sf, 2-story addition to the school’s main building. Cotting School is a private, free-day school for children with physical disabilities. The facility was designed and constructed to meet the specialized needs of the Cotting student body, and to allow students to test their skills, boost their confidence, practice teamwork, and expand their imagination. The new addition was also designed to allow Cotting to update programs and unlock the full potential of its therapy and learning spaces by expanding them, enabling staff and students to continue to collaborate and inspire one another.
The Campus Center of Excellence includes a full, regulation-sized gymnasium with room for all fans, including those in wheelchairs, and adjustable basketball hoops that can be lowered or raised depending on the type of activity taking place. It also includes an adaptive indoor rock climbing wall with low ropes course elements designed to provide a safe, fun and supportive environment for students with disabilities to discover and enjoy the sport of climbing.
Two candlepin bowling lanes give the school additional, year-round options for team-building, after-school programming, and recreation. Candlepin bowling is a variation of bowling that is played with a handheld-sized ball and tall, narrow pins that resemble candles. Cotting’s lanes are two of the last of their kind installed in the New England area.
The campus center features new media and visual arts classrooms that support performing arts programs, photography, filmmaking, painting, ceramics, and vocational workshops. An exterior landscaped courtyard was created between the new center and existing buildings where students will have the opportunity to plant and maintain the vegetation as part of the school’s curriculum.
The center also houses a strength and conditioning fitness center with adaptive equipment to assist students in building muscle tone, muscle strength, and coordination; a school store/concession space that provides students the opportunity for work experience during events in the gymnasium; and two new offices to support Cotting’s growing staff, giving them ample space to engage students.
The project team also included Activitas and other subcontractor partners. The project was completed in December of 2021.
