Dublin School will soon begin construction to the tune of almost $4 million on three projects, two of which are designed to allow for a larger number of students.
Expanding the Louise Shonk Kelly Recital Hall, rebuilding the David E. Howe Administration Building, and a new “slopeside” dormitory, were all approved by the Dublin School Board of Trustees on April 12. Head of School Bradford Bates said Thursday that construction will begin in May, with all projects completed by January in the best case scenario.
“I’m very excited to be moving forward with these projects,” said Bates. “This is all part of a master plan that we have been working on for the past nine years.”
Expanding the recital hall is needed as there are currently not enough seats in the hall to accommodate all students in staff, according to Bates, which is important because the building is used by the entire school daily for a 30 minute meeting, on top of other typical recital hall usages. There are currently 145 fixed seats for 163 students.
The expansion will add room for a number of temporary seats in different configurations, which should up the seating to over 200.
The administration building, constructed in the early 1960s, needed to be rebuilt after the decomposition of materials was reportedly giving people headaches. A wing of the building has been torn down, with a new building being constructed perpendicular to the old building.
The new building will be two-stories, according to the Dublin School website, and will house Bates’s office and the admissions office.
The new dorms will be built on the site of the existing Outing Club, which is the old art studio building. The building will replace some existing housing and increase dorm space on campus. In total, the building will house 24 students in a mix of double and single rooms, as well as two faculty members in larger apartment spaces.
Representatives from Dublin School met with the town of Dublin’s Planning Board on Thursday to determine whether the projects were subject to site plan reviews. The board voted to waive a site plan review pending the school getting an engineering plan for some retaining walls, according to Bates.
The current best case scenarios for completion are September for the recital hall, October for the administration building, and January for the dormitory. Construction will be managed by Hutter Construction Corporation of New Ipswich.
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com. He is also on Twitter @nhandyMLT.