Construction Project

Perkins School for the Blind and Shawmut Design and Construction are building more than facilities for students. As our exciting $30M construction and renovation project to update the 100-year-old Lower School building surges forward, we are building new ways to educate children.

View our Lower School Construction Photo Gallery to see the latest progress and learn how students are being included in this historic endeavor.  

New Lower School to Better Accommodate Students with Multiple Challenges

A new schoolhouse will serve elementary- through middle-school-age students, and historic structures will be re-fit as students residences and administrative space. The project will be financed through the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency. The old and new spaces will be configured for the educational, living and safety needs of roughly 50 Lower School students ages six to 15 who are blind or visually impaired with or without other disabilities.

Download our fact sheet on the Lower School Construction and Renovation to learn more about this project, Perkins architectural history, green design improvements, and more.

Consider a gift to our Lower School Fund to support our newest building!

A Learning Experience for Students

The Shawmut construction crew is working closely with Perkins to use the construction process as an opportunity for students to learn, interact, and be involved in an exciting new chapter for their school.

Mike Mallet and Rob Hair place materials on the tactile construction board.

During the first in a series of assemblies to educate Perkins students about the construction process, Shawmut Construction Manager Mike Mallet compared the new building to a human body.

"You’ve got your bones inside you, that hold you together — that’s what we’re doing outside right now; we’re putting the bones of the building up, the structural steel," Mallet explained.

To help the students better understand every stage of the project, Shawmut created a "tactile construction board." The teaching tool consists of a 6’ x 10’ wall covered in samples of materials related to the phase of construction currently underway. The samples are arranged chronologically and spatially from foundation materials to roofing. Braille labels allow students to experience and learn about the construction project through touch while using their reading skills.

Throughout the course of construction and renovation, Shawmut operations team members and subcontractors will visit classrooms to talk with students about what they do. As students learn about the project and the people who make it happen, contractors are finding out how they impact the lives and learning of the students. On May 13, students will perform a concert featuring “construction sounds.”

 “This project will give them a hands-on experience that few children ever have, no matter where they go to school. They will learn not only about their new schoolhouse, but about how all buildings are made. Mike Mallett and the Shawmut crew are wonderful partners,” said Perkins Lower School Education Director Rob Hair.

Read news coverage of the Lower School construction project from the Boston Globe and Boston Herald .

Designing for Current and Future Needs

Artist rendering of the new Lower School building.

Almost all Perkins Lower School students are visually impaired with additional challenges. Many use wheelchairs or walk with supports. The percentage of students with multiple disabilities is expected to grow in coming years, requiring more adaptable, accessible facilities. While the number of students at Perkins is not expected to increase, their individual needs will be greater.

The current classrooms and common spaces can accommodate such complex student needs only with the most extraordinary efforts of Perkins teachers and staff. In the new school house, entrances and exits will be wheelchair accessible, the design will include state-of-the-art specialized classrooms, better spaces for teaching independent living skills and personal care. Covered walkways will allow students travel to and from residences and classrooms on their own.

“The impact on students and teachers will be profound,” says Rothstein. “This is truly a commitment to accessibility, it’s a commitment to safety, to personal independence for our students. It’s a commitment to planning for the next hundred years.”

Architects Miller Dyer Spears created the design over a two-year period, fully integrating student needs and the ideas of Perkins faculty and staff. Shawmut Design and Construction expects to complete the new schoolhouse (Phase 1) by early 2011. Renovations of existing buildings (Phases 2 and 3) will follow.