Josiah Quincy Upper School

Boston, Massachusetts

Firm

HMFH Architects

Client

City of Boston

Area

178,000 sq.ft.

Total Cost

$178,350,000

Completion Date

09/2024

Ed Wonsek Artworks

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Design team
Philip Lewis AIA, LEED AP (Project Director); Deborah Collins AIA (Project Manager); Bobby Williams AIA, LEED AP (Project Manager); Matthew LaRue AIA, LEED Green Associate (Design Leader)

Sited at the threshold of Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood, the new LEED Platinum-certified Josiah Quincy Upper School is a showcase for equitable, community-focused, sustainable design. It is one of the first projects to open under the Green New Deal for Boston Public Schools.

With limited open space in Boston’s dense urban core for a new school, Josiah Quincy was conceived as a dynamic high-rise facility on a less-than-one-acre site to make the most of its verticality. It offers a robust educational program, including International Baccalaureate curriculum; introduces occupiable rooftop green space to nurture student well-being and enhance the long-term resiliency of the neighborhood; and provides community-oriented spaces including a 435-seat auditorium, black box theater, gymnasium and media center.

In the new school, students enjoy expanded educational opportunities with state-of-the-art learning spaces such as light-filled classrooms with flexible layouts, centrally situated project areas for collaboration on each academic floor, and specialty spaces such as a food tech lab, a robotics classroom, an outdoor STEM teaching space, a mindfulness garden and student planters on the school’s rooftop.