Marathon Center School, aerial view / Matt Wright Photography
Holliston, MA – Colantonio Inc., construction manager at risk, wrapped up construction of the town of Hopkinton’s Marathon Elementary School two months ahead of its July deadline.
Marathon replaces the Center School on Ash Street to serve the town’s 475 pre-K, kindergarten, and first-grade students. The 88,700sf, two-story facility features 29 classrooms, a media center, music room, cafeteria, and gym on a newly acquired forested site. Outdoor features include two playgrounds, a playing field, four raised garden beds, and classroom space, complete with internet access.
Interior design used 32 different paint colors and nine flooring colors for its theme “It All Starts Here,” referring to both the town’s location as the start of the Boston Marathon and as the start of the Charles River.
Marathon school classroom / Greg Premru Photography
The entryway floor boasts this phrase, along with a blue and yellow starting line. A river, with fish and kayaks, flows from the front entrance through the hallways and out the back door to the younger children’s playground. Letters and numbers are featured on the floors throughout the building. The shape of each of figures was painstakingly cut out of the flooring and replaced with matching, colored flooring.
The school was designed and built to meet the criteria of LEED v4 for B+C: Schools and will seek LEED Silver certification. Sustainable features include a photovoltaic system on the cool white roof, energy-efficient HVAC systems, specialized interior lighting, low emitting materials, rainwater management, and appropriate construction and demolition waste management.
