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Whately Officially Opens its Newly Renovated Town Hall
October 2, 2018
Building committee members and key officials cut ribbon in front of building
In coordination with the Whately Historical Society's Fall Festival, a ribbon cutting ceremony was held this past weekend in front of the Whately Town hall, followed by an open house.

This important historic preservation project has once again made the town hall a center of activity with a large performance - meeting room on the second floor along with an additional small gather space on the first floor. The Whately Historical Society will also occupy space on the first floor with a newly crated Whately Historic Museum. Other improvements to the town's historic structure include a small additon to the rear of the building which provides complete handicap accessiblity with a leveled entryway and elevator to access the large hall on the second floor. Energy efficient LED lighting and a state-of-the-art HVAC system bring the building into the 21 century, with special design attention given to maintain the historic nature of the building. For more information and photos of the ceremony, visit these local news articles:

Media Coverage:
Town of Whately celebrates long awaited new town hall building
Ribbon-cutting ceremony, in conjunction with fall festival, to christen Whately’s old Town Hall

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Ribbon Cutting Celebrates Opening of Granby's East Meadow School
September 24, 2018
Official and students stand in front of ribbon just before cutting
Jones Whitsett's addition and renovation work at the East Meadow School reaches completion this month, getting an official dedication on Monday by the State Treasurer and Receiver General Deborah Goldberg along with local officials, staff, students, and parents.

The single-story, 68,760 square foot school building includes a new gym, new classrooms and state-of-the-art computer labs. Portions of the older East Meadow School underwent extensive renovation to complement the newer addition. Surrounded by flowering meadows in the front, and a newly designed playground area in back, the East Meadow School was completed just into time for the start of the 2018 - 2019 school year. With over 400 pre-kindergarten thru 6th grade students starting the year, teacher, parents and community members are excited about the new learning environment. Visit these links for more about the dedication ceremony and what's being said about Granby's newest educational facility.

Media Coverage:
Granby celebrates opening of East Meadow School with ribbon cutting
Ribbon cutting held for new East Meadow School in Granby

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MSBA Gives the City of Holyoke & JWA the Go-Ahead to Design Two New Middle Schools
September 4, 2018
Kids at community design event
At the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Board meeting on Wednesday, August 29th, the board approved the city of Holyoke's request to help fund two new middle schools. The new school buildings will be located near existing schools.

One on the open block adjacent to the H.B. Lawrence School and the other will replace the William R. Peck School on its existing site. Lots of ground work has already been done by the JWA team and the volunteers of the School Building Committee to get community input, with more events planned over the next eight months. Citizens of Holyoke, especially families of young Holyoke Public Schools students, are invited to participate in the design process at upcoming community meetings.  The first is scheduled for Wednesday, October 25th in the Holyoke Public Library Community Room at 6:00 PM. Ultimately the Holyoke voters will decide whether to construct two new middle school buildings in the coming spring.

"It has been more than 30 years since Holyoke has built a new school,” said Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse.  “We are extremely pleased that the MSBA has voted to allow us to build two schools for our students.  We believe these two schools will provide optimal access and space to meet our community’s needs.  Our students deserve to have world class educational facilities where they can thrive as they prepare to move onto secondary education and eventually college and careers."

Over the past three years, the Holyoke Public Schools has engaged in an extensive analysis and community process to solicit input on the structure of schools in the district, which resulted in a call for new middle school space.  “The overwhelming result was a preference for separate elementary and middle schools,” stated Dr. Stephen Zrike, Jr., Receiver/Superintendent, Holyoke Public Schools (HPS).  “We thank the MSBA for their review and approval.  Opening new middle schools is aligned with our vision of a pathway for every student, responds to community input and creates more choice for students and families.  As a district, we are excited to continue this next step of reenvisioning the middle school experience for Holyoke students.”

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Staff Work Day at Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity House
August 20, 2018
All staff picture on site
On August 15th the entire JWA staff got out from behind their computers to swing hammers, cut, measure, and sweat a little at Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity’s latest housing project.

The small, single family home, designed by JWA’s own Dorrie Brooks and Molly Clark is part of PVHH’s small cluster of affordable housing at the end of Garfield Avenue in Florence.  Joined by several Valley retirees, and crew supervisor Walt Kohler, our staff spent the day putting up sheathing, caulking joints, erecting scaffolding and laying  out interior walls. For additional photos and progress on this project, follow the link below to PVHH’s facebook page. Kristian and George

Helen and Lauren

Lawson and Margo

Media Coverage:
PVHH facebook Page

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Project Update - Holyoke Middle Schools
August 14, 2018
On August 8th, the MSBA Facilities Assessment Subcommittee reviewed the completed Feasibility Study for the City of Holyoke’s proposed project to design and build two new middle schools.

The project team was represented forcefully by Mayor Alex Morse, Superintendent Dr. Stephen Zrike, Owners Project Manager Margaret Minor Wood and JWA’s Dorrie Brooks, AIA and Margo Jones, FAIA. On August 29th the MSBA Board of Directors will make their final determination of whether the project will go forward into design. site rendering

building rendering

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Jones Whitsett Architects Awarded Gardner Elementary School Project
August 14, 2018
On May 22, 2018 the MSBA awarded Jones Whitsett Architects the Feasibility Study scope of work for the renovation or replacement of Waterford Elementary in the town of Gardner, Massachusetts. The project aims to serve the needs of 924 Kindergarten through 4th grade students. The study is to be managed by Colliers International. JWA’s Helen Fantini, AIA, NCARB is the architect in charge of the study phase of the project.
Brimfield Voters Approve Municipal Projects
July 25, 2018
Brimfield
On June 4th, the Town of Brimfield voted to approve the design and construction of an Addition/Renovation project at the Public Safety and Highway buildings.

Jones Whitsett has worked closely with the town on conceptual designs and will design the expansions to the existing buildings which will increase vehicle storage capacity for the Fire Department, improve the office and locker facilities for the Police Department, and add an indoor wash-bay at the Highway Department. Anticipated completion is in 2019. rendering

proposed rendering

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"Downtown Greenfield parking garage scheduled to open in four months"
June 27, 2018
On June 27th, 2018, Greenfield Garage and Jones Whitsett Architect, Dorrie Brooks, were featured in a 22 News update.

Watch the coverage and read the article in the link below.

Media Coverage:
Greenfield Garage Media Coverage

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“Old Stone Mill being repurposed as zero-waste maker space”
June 26, 2018

The July 2018 issue of Berkshire Trade & Commerce business journal highlights one of JWA’s projects in Adams, MA. To read the full article, see page 1 in the link below.

Media Coverage:
Old Stone Mill Media Coverage

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WMHCC - Historic Window Repair – Case Study: Whately Town Hall
March 22, 2018
On March 15, the Western Massachusetts Historic Commissions Coalition (WMHCC) hosted a meeting that focused on historic windows, with presentations by practitioners and case study examples.

Jones Whitsett's George Dole presented the Whately Town Hall Renovation Project as one of the case studies. As one of four main presenters, George provided meaningful insight into the challenges that those doing historic preservation work confront when deciding to restore older windows. For more information and to view relative documents from the WMHCC meeting that took place here in Greenfield, visit the link below to the Preservation Massachusetts website.

Media Coverage:
WMHCC Presentation Archive

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