Lowell Plan Executive Director Jim Cook was appointed to the School Building Committee (SBC) and has been participating in meetings with other city representatives and staff from Skanska and Perkins Eastman.
The City of Lowell submitted a successful statement of interest to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for Lowell High School in April 2014. Since that time, the City has progressed to Module III of the process, otherwise known as the Feasibility Study Stage. The City hired the Owner's Project Manager (OPM), Skanska USA Building, Inc., in April 2016. The Architect, Perkins Eastman, was hired in July 2016.
During the Feasibility Study, the district and its team of OPM Skanska and designer Perkins Eastman collaborated with the MSBA to generate an initial space summary, document existing conditions, establish design parameters, develop and evaluate alternatives, and recommend the most cost effective and educationally appropriate solution to the MSBA Board of Directors. The Feasibility Study is broken into two parts the Preliminary Design Program (PDP). The PDP submission was made to the MSBA in February 2017. The Preferred Schematic Report (PSR) is currently underway for submission to the MSBA in June.
The SBC voted to select four out of ten possible location options that included the downtown and Cawley sites. The SBC will meet on June 8th to vote to recommend to the City Council a preference for one of the four locations. The City Council will meet on June 13th to vote to recommend to the State a preferred site for Lowell High School.