Jon Rich
Martin Luther King Jr School Ext Corner NW © Robert Benson Photography
by Jonathan Rich
W.T. Rich Company, through its Rich-Caulfield MLK Venture, served as the construction manager for the construction of a new, state-of-the-art 190,000sf, $79 million public school in Cambridge. The city of Cambridge is a leader in sustainable construction, and the new Martin Luther King Jr. School (MLK School) embodies those principles. The school is on target to achieve the coveted LEED Platinum certification. LEED certification is a common goal among schools in Massachusetts, but net-zero emissions is an uncommon goal. The MLK School is changing that by becoming one of the first schools to target net-zero emissions.
The new school has many sustainable energy systems such as a rooftop and wall-mounted solar photovoltaic system that produces nearly 600 kilowatts of electricity, which is about 47% of the electricity needed to power the school. The project also features 65 geothermal wells that provide heating and cooling to the school.
Martin Luther King Jr School Ext Corner SW © Robert Benson Photography
“There are no boilers or gas usage,” said Michael Black, construction program manager for the city of Cambridge. “The city adopted the net-zero policy in 2015. New buildings need to achieve net zero by 2020.” He added that “educating the users of the new school in energy conservation will also help achieve sustainability and net zero goals.”
Sustainable features of the new school include building materials with a high percentage of recycled content and water conservation measures such as a rainwater collection and storage system. The rainwater partially replaces city water for toilet flushing and irrigation.
“Over 90% of the construction waste was diverted from landfills and recycled, used elsewhere, or converted to energy,” said Davida Flynn, project manager for W.T. Rich. Sustainability also includes locally sourced materials. “The granite, concrete, and some of the steel used in the MLK School were sourced or manufactured within a 500-mile radius of the school,” she added.
The new MLK School includes a community complex, a preschool, a lower school for grades kindergarten to 5, and an upper school for grades 6 to 8. It also includes a 400-seat auditorium, two gymnasiums, a learning commons that is tightly woven into the library and media center areas, and a cafeteria with a full kitchen. There are also the City Sprouts outdoor roof patio and garden and 69 underground parking spaces for school faculty and staff.
The project’s exterior consists of a number of façade materials including face brick, silicate brick, metal plate panels, formed metal panels, fiber cement panels, and a significant amount of curtainwall and punched window openings. Its landscaping uses plants and other vegetation that are native to the area and that require minimal irrigation. The interior consists of terrazzo flooring on the ground floor with marmoleum used throughout all corridors and classrooms and ceramic tile in all bathrooms and showers.
W.T. Rich and the city of Cambridge have had a proud history working together, having completed six successful Cambridge public projects over the last 15 years. The city recently retained W.T. Rich and the Rich-KBE King School Venture to serve as its construction manager for the King Open/Cambridge Street Upper School project, a $130 million new school construction project with net-zero goals.
Jonathan Rich is CEO of the W.T. Rich Company, Inc.
