"The classroom should be an entrance into the world, not an escape from it."
— John Ciardi

Teaching and learning are constantly evolving. Classroom typologies, learning styles, pedagogical approaches, institutional culture, and campus standards vary wildly across the higher education landscape. This presents
unique challenges in the design of learning environments. As a result of our experience, Jones has developed key metrics for learning spaces that we use as a planning resource with our clients.

“If you survive long enough, you're revered - rather like an old building.”
— Katharine Hepburn

All campuses face aging core academic facilities, often housed in important historic buildings at the heart of campus. These buildings typically come with a long list of needs like supporting modern programs, addressing deferred maintenance, code compliance and accessibility. But topping the list, always, is the need to maintain historic character and the distinct sense of place these buildings impart.

Background on Norwich University

Founded in 1819 in Norwich, Vermont, by Captain Alden Partridge, Norwich University is the oldest private military college in the United States. Partridge grounded the education in a traditional liberal arts curriculum with instruction in civil engineering and military science. Subsequent moves to Middletown CT (1825) and back to Norwich (1829) preceded a final move to Northfield VT in 1866. In the mid 1990’s, Norwich University acquired Vermont College and now combines its robust military history with a civilian student population. The central campus revitalization was the anchor project of Norwich’s 200th anniversary capital campaign. Freeman French Freeman, Architects worked with Jones as the architect-of-record.

"When we design for disability first, you often stumble upon solutions that are better than those when we design for the norm."
— Elise Roy

Designing to include people of all abilities is not the correction of an "instance" or "occurrence," it’s an act of empathy aimed at respectfully and generously meeting the multitude of ways that humans move, navigate, live and interact. It’s also an opportunity to solve for more than accessibility.

“What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it feels about education.”
― Harold Howe

No longer simply a place for books, academic research, and quiet study, the 21st century academic library is now a social destination, home for teaching and learning, a place of research, and an incubator for bringing ideas to life.

“Globally the number of mass timber buildings will double every two years. The result is that the North American timber industry will store more carbon than it emits by the year 2034.”
— North American Mass Timber Report: 2021 State of the Industry

Ten years ago, there were no Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) factories in the United States. Today, there are more than a dozen. In 2015 CLT was recognized as a structural product in the International Building Code (IBC) for buildings up to six stories. As of this year, the IBC allows the use of mass timber structural products (which include CLT panels and glulam columns and beams among others) in buildings up to 25 stories tall (Milwaukee multifamily tower).

While the benefits of mass timber use may not live up to its proponents’ inspiring predictions, the speed with which this renewable material has been taken up in an industry that is notoriously slow to change speaks to its promise: it is a strong, safe, beautiful, and low-carbon alternative (or complement) to concrete and steel —and its use also speeds construction.

“He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.”

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.”
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Other than geography, it’s hard to see what TD Garden, MIT, Salem Five Bank and the Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance have in common. Yet each engaged Jones Architecture in an on-call capacity, along with more than a dozen other institutions in our region. Why? What are the advantages? Is there a downside to hiring a “house doc?”

That means reaching beyond environmental and accessibility practices to include strategies that lead to social and economic justice, equity and inclusion.

Accessibility. Universal design. Inclusive design. What does it all mean? When it comes to the built environment, each concept is different, and all are related. As the most recent addition to the lexicon, inclusive design is perhaps most elusive. Is it a noun or a verb? What does it look like? How is it different from the other two? Owners might feel some trepidation at the term. (Yet another requirement? What will it cost?). To designers, it feels good; that is, it feels like good design. And to users? It feels like being respected and heard; it feels right.

At Jones, inclusive design comes down to making as many people as possible feel comfortable and accepted in their environment. Shaping an “architecture for belonging” is part mindset, part process, part product (verb and noun). Step one: when defining goals for the design of any project, put “belonging” on the list. And no, it doesn’t have to cost more money, or take more time. In any case, a better question might be, what are the costs of exclusion?

Learning environments are changing — faster than ever thanks to Covid-19. The rise of interdisciplinary and collaborative learning has fostered a host of changes to departmental structures, institutional policies, educational pedagogy, research funding, and student life.

Good learning environments are shaped by the activities that they contain, and space planning and design strategies are evolving in response to these changes. As teaching and learning approaches evolve, we work with clients to align and anticipate future needs in the architecture, systems, furniture, AV, technology, finishes, and other aspects of the environment.

In his video essay, How Life Looks Through My ‘Whale Eyes,’ which was recently published in the New York Times, James Robinson gives viewers a poignant glimpse into what it’s like to navigate the world as part of the “sea of difference,” on which the “USS Normal” sails. Robinson, who graduated from Duke in 2020, deals with three different eye conditions that cause an array of challenges with how he sees — and how he is seen.

“We put so much time and effort into making sure that people who are perceived as different understand what it would be like if they were normal,” he says. “But we rarely ever do the opposite. Pushing those who perceive themselves as normal to understand what it would be like if they were different.”

“A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library.”
― Shelby Foote

Book box, archive, student hub, campus nexus, quiet study area, collaboration space, classroom – today’s academic libraries support students in a myriad of ways. It is a place for people with information in it, not the other way around. With so many potential uses, how do you know how to program and design the right library for your campus?

Consult the Library of Libraries

Jones’ academic library database encompasses more than 85 institutions throughout New England and beyond. The information we have gathered includes general contextual information like campus size, character, makeup and program trends, including detailed seat count and type analyses as well as information about space utilization.

We bring this data to bear on the design and planning recommendations that we make for university clients by identifying their peer group and drawing comparisons. This, however, is just the beginning.

Each institution is unique, of course, so we use this peer assessment as a benchmarking tool and launch point for asking questions about why, how and what the specific needs will be as it relates to your institution.

CLT is still a relatively new material for building in New England, but it won’t be for long; CLT can be used as floor and roof slabs as well as shear and shaft walls. It is typically combined with a glulam, steel, or concrete superstructure of beams and columns. It is suitable in just about any midrise project that involves new construction, including additions and renovations. This last point is important, because using existing building stock is the first strategy in building green.

“House doctor” is common parlance in our industry, referring to a consultant who is on-call to assist an organization, often under a master or term contract agreement. Projects may be planning or design and construction. They are generally smaller, but not exclusively so. They may be simple or complex.

From the day we opened our doors in 2010, Jones has embraced practices that focus on preserving, protecting and renewing natural systems and resources. The approach is intrinsic to our work; no project begins without consideration of its environmental effects. But creating a sustainable future entails far more than green building.

Definitions

First, let’s revisit the terms. Most familiar is accessibility: ensuring access to and throughout buildings for people of all abilities has been the law for more than 30 years.

Universal design takes that idea and expands on it, relying on seven key principles to create a building (or a can opener or software for example) that can be “accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability,” ideally in ways that don’t differentiate or relegate some people to a lesser status. It reaches beyond code and compliance to achieve a more intuitive and gracious experience for everyone. A common example is a building that is accessed via a gentle slope, as opposed to, say, a grand front stair with a ramp or elevator around back.

Inclusive design moves beyond the realm of physical characteristics that affect a person’s experience of their environment to acknowledge the full range of human diversity, from gender and culture to age and ability. Inclusive design centers on process, wherein a diverse set of voices inform design, the better to ensure a better response, i.e., one that meets multiple needs for multiple and distinct users. Inclusive design eschews assumptions about how people use a space in favor of asking them. (Imagine!)

“But!” Some may think, “Architects have always done that – they listen to owners, board members, facility managers and so on; they assimilate input from engineers, IT experts, builders, etc.” And we do. What’s different now is as simple as it is profound: we’re trying to fold in voices that have been traditionally overlooked.

Think of it as “designing with” rather than “designing for.” The inclusive design leader Susan Goltsman may have said it best:

“Inclusive design doesn’t mean you’re designing one thing for all people. You’re designing a diversity of ways to participate so that everyone has a sense of belonging.”

Trends

Some of the trends that we see in learning include increased competition/increased expectations, supporting broad ranges of teaching and learning styles, providing a diverse portfolio of learning environments, combinations of service and learning, finding learning spaces everywhere, and exploiting opportunities for program sharing or consolidation.

Jones has completed hundreds of classrooms on nearly two dozen college campuses over the last 10 years.

The architect’s job is to “do the opposite;” to push ourselves, as Robinson describes, into understanding what it would be like to swim in the ‘sea of difference,” and then design places that meet those differences with intelligence and grace. This inclusive approach is known as universal design or designing for accessibility — or just plain old good design. Regardless of what we call it, it’s all about empathy. We have to be able to imagine how all kinds of different people with diverse abilities can access, use and enjoy the same place without compromise.

Universal Design

Every project that Jones undertakes embraces universal design concepts. Quite often, we are working on campuses constructed well before laws that govern universal access were enacted, which means we don’t have the luxury of starting from scratch.

Solutions within buildings are solved as part of renovations to these structures. Many of the buildings have seen multiple overhauls since their original construction — to address deferred maintenance, the end of the natural life of particular building systems, or finish upgrades. As these incremental updates have been implemented, they are accompanied by improvements to accessibility, in compliance with the law — bathroom updates, door operation, ramps and sloped walks at building entries, etc.

However, when working on a campus, there is an ill-defined limit outside the building where the accessibility scope stops. It is not a standalone building in a parking lot where you can draw a clean line. These campuses are networks of circulation and we are often tasked with drawing these lines in ways that improve accessibility, while limiting scope to contain project cost.

Ainsworth and Dewey Halls are two of the oldest buildings on campus, and each have unique historic character that yearned to be rediscovered and augmented.

• Ainsworth Hall was built in 1910 for the United States Weather Bureau as its central Vermont station. In the 1960’s and 70’s it was converted to the School of Social Sciences.
• Built in 1902, Dewey Hall is one of the oldest buildings on the Northfield campus. It was gutted by fire in 1925 and rebuilt as a three-story structure. At the outset of the planning process, it was home to the School of Business & Management, including a top-five program in cyber security.
• Webb Hall (1960) contained Dole Auditorium and was the home to the School of Humanities. It is now called Schneider Hall.

Anyone who works in the AEC industry is well aware of our sector’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions; taken together, buildings (operation) and their construction account for 38% of all energy-related CO₂, according to the UN 2020 Global Status Report for Building and Construction. The report notes that direct building CO₂ emissions need to halve by 2030 to get on track for net zero carbon building stock by 2050 (which is a critical target for keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5°C). Mass timber can help us get there — mostly by reducing emissions associated with building construction, although it can also make contributions to energy performance.

When we take on a new project as a house doc, we’re bringing with us the experience of every project that has come before it with that organization, and often with forethought about those ahead. This context includes an understanding of organizational identity, standards, preferences, goals and ways of working — an accumulation of institutional knowledge that pays multiple dividends, from increased efficiency to better design.

The modern concept of sustainability is defined as meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs; as such, it embodies three interconnected pillars: ecological, social and economic health and stability. But what of these latter two? This is the work in progress at Jones.

Synthesis

Architects are synthesizers by nature and by training; it is our job to ask, listen, observe and respond in ways that take myriad and often competing variables into account; we are obsessed with elegance and economy — how can we resolve this messy set of variables in a unified fashion? How do we make something as beautiful as it is useful as it is welcoming? How can we make this place work for as many people as possible with the least number of moves?

We start by simply saying it out loud on new projects: we prioritize belonging as a design goal. Why? Because inclusion has too much value to ignore. Like sustainability, it has become, for Jones, a non-negotiable element of design. We are convinced that if we are not working toward improving DEI in our industry, we are contributing to the problem. And it is a problem.

Historically, architects have discounted many voices, namely those belonging to people who are not white or male but also people with low incomes, or less than a college education.

Fortunately, that’s changing. For the profession to be a better reflection of the world we live in is both right and necessary. When more people of diverse backgrounds — including cognitive diversity as this study shows —  have a voice in architecture, more effective and enduring design is the result. (More food for thought on design and inclusion here and a book list here.)

To achieve more inclusive design, we are challenging our approach to user engagement, recommendations to clients, and hiring and recruitment; we are identifying and dismantling exclusionary processes. And here’s the best part: We never know what may come out of these processes, but it’s certainly never going to make a project worse. It’s only going to get better.

Inclusive design is less about checklists and standards than an expansion on what architects already do — engage stakeholders, get information from them, and implement accordingly. We’re learning as we go. That said, since formalizing our inclusive design efforts in January 2023, we have a few insights to offer.

Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve learned about planning, design, and construction of learning environments.

Contrary to popular opinion, most campuses have enough classrooms. More often, the issue to be resolved centers on the type and mix of classrooms. When we arrive to a campus and begin interviewing project stakeholders, we regularly hear the same refrain from faculty, administration, students and the registrar: there are not enough classrooms on campus. After deeper analysis, rarely do we find this to be the case.

It is much more often the case that there are the right number of classrooms, but they are lacking in some other way which impacts their utilization. This could be something simple that is easily remedied (it is just that no one ever asked), or it could be something very complex. Maybe technology is substandard. The seat count is not right. Furniture and flexibility provided in the room does not suit the needs of the pedagogical approach. The room is in a building at the edge of campus, or simply not in the same building as the department. There are never whiteboard markers in the room. The only doors are at the front of the room, so late arriving students interrupt the lecture. The room isn’t scheduled on Monday mornings or Friday afternoons because those are unpopular slots. It is important to dig deeper at these comments from campus constituents to reveal underlying cause and effect.

Flanked by campus landmarks such as the Upper Parade Ground, White Chapel, and the Wise Campus Center, this central area is comprised of three buildings: Ainsworth, Webb, and Dewey Hall. At the outset of planning, these buildings were home to the School of Social Sciences, School of Humanities, and School of Business & Management, respectively. They were dated and tired, did not serve their constituents well, were plagued by deferred maintenance, and yet remained vital contributors to academic life given their central location and historic character.

The Spaces Between

The all-important spaces between buildings in particular are plagued by impediments — whether the small moments of a single step or two, or the sweeping challenges of a sloped walk that exceeds code limits and runs for hundreds of feet. At the same time, sitework and landscape offer some of the best opportunities to achieve universal access and can be far less expensive than renovation or building anew. Creatively manipulating a site can shape a system of access that everyone uses in the same way — raising the grade so that no stairs are required, for example.

That’s why it has been gratifying to work on campus projects whose primary motivation was improvement to accessibility in the landscape and circulation network that ties each campus together — offering the opportunity to solve for access in a way that also improved campus resilience overall. While every project is different in terms of student body, culture, landscape, climate, original design intent, character and so on, each underwent a systemic approach that looks at how the whole campus can benefit from improved access strategies. It starts by identifying areas of exclusion and ends with inclusive design that brings social and environmental benefits to all users, as well as economic benefits to the schools.

Inside Today's Academic Libraries

Libraries are active sites of social engagement, discovery, and knowledge sharing and creation.

These are the key uses driving design now.

Digital Scholarship. We live in a multi-media world, which means campus libraries need to support students’ ability to explore, learn, and produce digital content. Faculty also uses the library to produce content for MOOCs.

More and more facilities in Massachusetts are being planned and built using CLT each day. Jones designed one of our state’s first handful of CLT buildings, the $28.1 million construction cost C. Gerald Lucey office building for the Commonwealth’s Department of Employment Assistance in Brockton, which will be occupied in June 2022.

This is true whether you have 70,000 square feet of real estate or 700,000 – or more. While project volume plays into whether your organization will benefit from a house architect, so does your team capacity. In the last year at Jones, projects completed under term agreements have ranged from preliminary planning assessments for Northeastern University, to a new hockey locker room for the UMass Minutemen and a major renovation to lab spaces at MIT.

What we know: that as people who are paid to solve problems, the more diversity we have in the room, the better; that as humans who share the planet with all sorts of other humans – and non-humans – the more we can contribute to the health and wellbeing of all, the better. And that as professionals who want to feed our families and strengthen our communities, the more equity our work fosters, the better. Our success will increase prosperity, longevity, and resilience – for staff, clients, partners, the projects we touch, and the people whose lives are touched by those projects.

1. Get your own house in order.  Early in 2023, Jones worked with a consultant to help us examine ways to improve our practice relative to leadership, career development, pay equity and ensuring an explicitly inclusive culture. As a result , the firm established a robust performance review process that ensures people’s background and skills are recognized and valued in ways that promote equity. We also created a formal mentorship program that creates a variety of types of conversations so that everyone in the firm has opportunities to talk about career goals and establish development paths that capture individual needs and strengths.  We also created the Jones Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Justice (EDIB (J)) Council with a rotating cohort of 6-8 members. The EDIB(J) Council’s vision is to build a more inclusive culture at Jones with goals that include diversifying staff and leadership, creating equitable performance metrics, refining the firm’s onboarding process, community outreach and evaluating projects the firm takes on. Each year, half the members rotate off the council and new members join.

Finally, we recognize that a more diverse set of lived experiences among designers themselves would enrich design outcomes. We are working toward building a more diverse pipeline through outreach, including the development of what we call “pre-professional” mentorships , wherein we invite high school students (two at a time) to join the office for up to six weeks. Our first “class” will convene in summer of 2024 for a group project.

Makerspaces have taken on many forms; at their best, they are more than just space and equipment, programmed creatively and appropriately staffed. Great makerspaces offer layers of access—visibility from corridor to activity within; a tinkering table that allows for drop-in, low commitment play for anyone; and deeper, more time-consuming fabrication capacity accessible to more experienced users.

A yearlong planning and programming effort resulted in a $45 million project in which Jones undertook renovations to the three buildings, the addition of a new building, and major site infrastructure improvements to knit all of these new and old buildings together in a way that is meaningful and memorable.

The building, designed with a CLT and glulam beam and column structural system surrounding a steel core, presented a number of design opportunities — and not a few procurement hurdles, due chiefly to the project’s status as the Commonwealth’s first CLT building of this scale to use solely public funds. (Learn more about the project here, and about the procurement process here.)

Whole Practice Sustainability aims to examine how each strand of sustainability can be woven into a powerful thread that runs through our daily work. Toward that end, we are exploring our beliefs and biases, understanding what we’re already doing right, learning about best practices surrounding justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, identifying improvement areas and implementing steps toward the day at Jones Architecture when the idea of sustainability is so intrinsic to the work, there’s no need to talk about it at all. Here’s where we are today:

Classrooms are increasingly finding their way into libraries. These versatile spaces accommodate shifts from dialogic to didactic pedagogical modes, and can function as open study space, event venues, or collaborative work environments when not in use as a classroom. Faculty and students alike enjoy access during the extended hours of
operation of the library, which is in contrast to traditional classroom building hours. They are also heavily used by library staff for training purposes and for testing new technologies.

Of smaller scale but no less grand on challenges, we have worked with schools such as MIT (since 2013) Northeastern University (since 2013) and Harvard University (since 2015) whose historic campus cores have strict guidelines and oversight that require carefully considered responses. For the New Hampshire Institute of Art, whose campus is deeply embedded in the City of Manchester, an effort to integrate their offerings into historic public buildings led to the potential for a unique town and gown partnership. With our work at Cape Cod Community College and Massasoit Community College, we developed solutions that cleave to the different character of these two mid-century campuses.

Multiple awards and speaking engagements recognizing our expertise in green building and accessibility.

Social Spaces. We know that learning happens everywhere and spaces that promote social interaction strengthen student relationships and sense of community, while facilitating collaboration and the exchange of ideas. As such, we see cafes, lounges, laptop bars, and other in-between spaces as essential to libraries.

Established a DEI Council whose mission is to drive inclusion in our office and outside it.

MORE RESOURCES:

Do you want to learn more about our Pre-Professional Mentorship program? Email info@jonesarch.com for more information.

Jones SXSW EDU submission to speak about Inclusive Design, a topic that plays an integral part in bettering design for learning spaces.

On season 4, episode 3 of the High Profile Build Better podcast, "Optimizing Building Design through Community Engagement," Anastasia talks with Sarah Tarbet, senior associate at Jones Architecture, and Jennifer Burton, senior project manager for the Office of Planning at the Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance (or DCAMM) for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Tarbet and Burton share more about a project currently underway at Massasoit Community College in Brockton, Mass. which includes the transformation of two structures on campus into the new homes of the Allied Health Building and the Science Building. They expand on the unique design approach for these buildings centered on inclusivity, and discuss the emphasis on campus engagement that is informing the final design.

When working in a historic campus building, or precinct, we picture ourselves on an arc of history.

We are just one moment in the life of this campus, a perspective that requires both humility and pragmatism. Revere the historic building but do not be beholden to it. Make it function for today’s learning enterprise: sustainable, inclusive and energy efficient. Keep it as familiar to returning alumni as it is welcoming to current and prospective students. Balancing these competing forces with respect, thoughtfulness, and innovation is how we preserve the legacy of a historic campus core, making it as relevant for the future as it was the day it was built.

Assembled a racially and gender-diverse team: more than half of us are women; more than a quarter are non-white.

Continue to diversify the Jones team to ensure that our perspective includes a range of life experiences spanning multiple cultures, socio-economic backgrounds and identities, especially from groups that have traditionally been excluded from the architectural profession.

MORE RESOURCES

“Transforming Learning at Norwich University: Revitalizing a Historic Campus Core,” Sarah Tarbet, Michelle Crowley (Crowley Cottrell Landscape Architecture), and Aron Temkin (Dean of the College of Professional Schools) lectured on this project at the SCUP North Atlantic Regional Conference in Rochester, NY, in spring 2019.

“Envisioning a New Academic Quad in Context,” Marc Perras and Michelle Crowley (Crowley Cottrell Landscape Architecture) gave a tour and symposium on the project for AIA Vermont in 2018. 

Engaged a leadership training consultant through 2022-23 for a one-year project to educate staff and examine firm practices related to employment and advancement, strategic planning, and organizing our team around inclusionary policies.

Established an equitable staff support and mentoring policy, recognizing that each person has different circumstances and needs, and therefore people need different resources and opportunities allocated to them to thrive.

Seize Opportunities

Managing stormwater offers opportunities to improve accessibility and environmental impacts. When discussing the CCCC campus identity with stakeholders, they identified more with the wooded, natural landscape rather than the brick and concrete of much of the campus circulation. This informed the design approach, which reinforces the system of fluid paths while introducing a stormwater collection and management system featuring native plantings, swales, and drainage structures that straddle and duck under the path system. Bridges cross over these swales to provide accessible entries to buildings.

By opening up the main campus entry visually as well as improving access, the entire campus feels more welcoming, providing a completely different first impression to potential students that reinforces the school’s recruitment strategy.

Is there a downside to hiring a house doc?
Some would argue they inherently lack “fresh eyes” — that, as an extension of your team they won’t see the forest for the trees. We would remind them that architects undertake a range of projects of various types, sizes and degrees of complexity with a variety of clients across all sectors in many locations. This exposure keeps us fresh and in tune with trends across the competitive landscape. Indeed, with multiple house-doctor engagements comes deep insight of how other organizations — those like yours, and those completely different — are leveraging their real estate. 

Created systems of support, dialogue, and advocacy that are strengthened by our differences as well as our similarities.

Set a goal to provide at least two leadership opportunities for non-white, non-male people in the coming year.

Committed to broaching client sustainability conversations at project onset that include DEI. For example, at Massasoit Community College we have teamed with a small M/WBE architect to give us a more fulsome understanding of the population that MCC serves. With this partner, we are engaging the campus DEI team to establish processes that ensure planning and design meet the needs of the student body.

Think about when to disappear, and when to show up big.

Sometimes, there is an opportunity for a grand gesture to demonstrate a connection that solves for universal access. At Norwich’s Mack Hall, the bridge connecting the third floor of the building to the Upper Parade Ground spans over the Memorial Walkway and is a big architectural gesture that suits the scale and culture the campus. Far more often, it is the micro adjustments of grades, walkways, building entries, edge conditions, and material treatments like those of CCCC and MCC that feel as if they have always been there (or should have been).

C. Gerald Lucey Building

Mass timber structural elements for the C. Gerald Lucey Building included CLT floor and roof panels, glulam beams and glulam columns. CLT wall panels were eliminated due to fire code requirement of cladding, and glulam diagonal braces were eliminated to forego variance process.

• Volume of wood products used: 333 cubic meters (11,763 cubic feet)
• According to the Woodworks Calculator, U.S. and Canadian forests grow this much wood in: 1 minute
• Total potential carbon benefit: 362 metric tons
  • Carbon stored in the wood: 261 Metric Tons.
  • Avoided greenhouse gas emissions: 101 Metric Tons.

Others might say the house doc is fine for the low-profile projects, but for signature engagements it’s important to look elsewhere. Maybe. And maybe not. Think twice before dismissing a house doc for big, bold architectural projects. Are you making assumptions based on the role you have used them for in the past, rather than their talent and capacity?

We are a small office of creative people enriched by both our differences and our similarities. As a group, we are committed to the following principles of conduct:

• Be willing to broaden your horizons
• Hold courageous conversations
• Lead with respect and curiosity
• Get comfortable with being uncomfortable

In September 2024, Jones joined the AIA 2030 Commitment, a network of over 1,100 companies participating in an actionable climate strategy that provides a set of standards and goals for reaching net zero emissions within the built environment.

• Jones Architecture - Sustainability Action Plan (SAP)

The Long View

Regardless, providing improved access to buildings also creates more equitable access to programs and resources provided by these institutions. This aids in student recruitment and retention, as well as community outreach, providing long-term stability for the college. When this access also supports a self-maintaining ecosystem of planting, stormwater management, and wildlife, it not only offers aesthetic and wellness benefits, but allows the campus to spend facility resources elsewhere.

On the Horizon

Each institution we work with is unique, and their libraries cleave to the culture of the place. Our database provides a basis of comparison to peer institutions but is not a formula for success on its own. The alignment of the character and needs of an institution with what we are seeing in the marketplace requires judgment, deep discussion, and iteration after iteration. Some things we see shifting in this landscape include: a subtle swing back toward quiet study, new strategic partnerships that broaden resources for faculty and students, a variety of collaborative work environments, digital scholarship opportunities, and development of “sandbox” teaching environments for use by librarians and faculty.

Quote:
“The work of Jones Architecture at the Department of Unemployment Assistance in Brockton exemplifies a profoundly humane and increasingly important approach to sustainability. The planning of spaces, material choices, and connections to place, daylight and even the canopy of the trees on the terrace are centered on human comfort and wellbeing. This humane form of sustainability is critical for the design of workplaces where people spend so much of their lives, sometimes in stressful jobs. The smart organization of structure and systems is evidence that there is beauty in simplicity and adaptability."

 — Michelle Laboy, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Northeastern University

Many architectural firms eschew the role of a house doctor. They assume the projects are small, or mundane; they fear being pigeon-holed, or missing out on the chance to make their mark. We see it differently — we think they’re the ones missing out.

The work of a house doctor can vary wildly — both in scope and the user group served. It encompasses planning, design and construction, and can be a focused area of a building, whole buildings, or precincts of campuses. The latter is typically focused on a department, floor plate, or area of a building. It may also take the form of addressing deferred maintenance challenges. Regardless of the scope or scale, these projects are all important, often represent an opportunity for transformation, and can fundamentally change the day-to-day life of users. Small projects can lead to big solutions that shape the evolution of your organization. We’d never want to miss out on that, and neither should you.

Classrooms wear many hats; set priorities for how to serve multiple audiences.

From September to May, Monday through Friday, 8AM to 4PM, classrooms across campus are used for their primary function — teaching students. Although this is the primary audience, there are myriad classroom uses that occur "off-hours". Summer extension classes and evening continuing education programs leverage these resources. Recording for distance learning and online simulcast of in-person classes broaden the audience to remote students across the globe. Conferences and professional development courses for University faculty and staff, and their guests, take over classroom buildings on long weekends. Increasingly, universities leave classrooms open and available for students to do group work in the evening.

The occasions for custom solutions are rare, but necessary.

Although we preach diversity, adaptability, and general use classroom approaches to best support a broad range of pedagogical styles and functions, there are applications that call for tailored solutions. These may have particular requirements related to acoustic isolation or control, audio-visual or IT systems, technology, finishes, equipment, lighting, or other characteristics.

MORE RESOURCES

Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Book Chapter “Leveraging Research to Guide Fundamental Changes in Learning: A Case Study at Kreitzberg Library, Norwich University,” Chapter 13 in Academic Libraries and the Academy: Strategies and Approaches to Demonstrate Your Value, Impact, and Return on Investment, (Britto, Marwin and Kirsten Kinsley; Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2018).

Designing for access is so much more than ramps and handrails. It’s an empathetic and holistic way of thinking that aims to integrate the broadest possible set of opportunities of a given project in ways that bring people together rather than setting them apart. Solutions appear simple, or better yet, don’t appear at all to the everyday user. Which means they are underpinned by a complex process marked by thoughtful and thorough analysis of conditions, conducted by experienced field teams with comprehensive knowledge of the technical requirements of universal design, and a client committed to an inclusive outcome.

Aren’t we supposed to be saving trees?
Yes. The whole calculation of embodied energy and sequestration relative to mass timber — which some scientists question — depends on preserving old growth forests and responsible forest management. It is critical that designers specify only salvaged wood or wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in mass timber projects. This means the products come from forests that are managed to reduce habitat destruction and optimize growing period, then sustainably harvested and replanted as part of a larger strategy of carbon sequestration.  

The most important aspect of sustainability in terms of mass timber is its embodied energy. According to Wood for Good, an organization that advocates for sustainable wood construction, concrete requires five times the amount of energy to go from raw material to finished product, while steel requires 24 times the amount of energy. Then there’s the fact that wood sequesters carbon, unlike its concrete and steel counterparts, which introduce more carbon into the atmosphere. And, because wood is a good insulator, less energy is needed to heat and cool wood buildings.

MORE RESOURCES:

“Cross Laminated Timber and Public Procurement,” Marc Perras with Jeff Freitas (Project Engineer, DCAMM), Jennifer McClain (Principal, RSE Associates), and Dave Capaldo (Director of Public Construction, BOND) presented in December 2020 at the Architecture Boston Expo (ABX) Virtual Tradeshow.

“Mass Timber Construction in the Northeast,” Marc Perras presented in May 2021 at the Building Energy Boston NESEA (Northeast Sustainable Energy Association) Conference.

2022 CMAA Award! BOND Building Construction, our partner on the C. Gerald Lucey Building constructed with cross-laminated timber for DCAMM’s Department of Unemployment Assistance offices in Brockton, MA was recognized by the CMAA/Construction Management Association of America with a New England Chapter Project Achievement Award.

On season 2, episode 13 of the High Profile Build Better podcast, "Achieving Sustainability Goals with CLT Building Project," Anastasia Barnes talks with Marc Perras, associate principal at Jones Architecture and Jon Rossini, project manager at Bond Building Construction, about the new C. Gerald Lucey building project for the DUA. As the Commonwealth’s first CLT project of this scale using only public funds, Perras and Rossini talk about the sustainable design elements of the DUA building, and how cross-laminated timber can be used to achieve sustainability goals in a variety of construction projects.

Quote:
“Thank you for pulling this off under such a tight timeline. Jones Architecture is raising the bar for our other house docs —we wish all firms were as good as you folks are!”
—Joe MacKinnon, Director of Facilities, Cape Cod Community College

Jones Contracts for Ongoing Work
Boston University
Brandeis University
Cape Cod Community College
City of Boston Public Facilities Department
Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts State College Building Authority
Massasoit Community College
North Shore Community College
Northeastern University
Northern Essex Community College
Roxbury Community College
Salem Five Bank
Salem State University
TD Garden
Tufts University
University of Massachusetts – Amherst
University of Massachusetts – Boston
University of Massachusetts – Lowell
Harvard University
University of Massachusetts Building Authority

“I just want to be able to connect with people,” Robinson says. “It’s because I really live in your world that I need your help overcoming the distance between us.”

Architects, along with our colleagues in the landscape and engineering professions, have the opportunity with the built environment to help shrink the distances between people rather than magnify them. We would be foolish not to make the most of it.

(IMAGE CIRCA 2015)

MORE RESOURCES:

“Brutal Honesty about Student Services at UMass-Amherst,” Rick Jones with Jeff Dalzell (Project Planner and Manager in Campus Planning, UMass-Amherst) and Naomi Cottrell (Principal, Crowley Cottrell) presented in March 2022 at SCUP North Atlantic Regional Conference.

“The Innovation Campus at Northeastern University: Bridging the Gap to Industry,” Dan Ollila with Jim Brand (Director of Space and Capital Planning, Northeastern University) and Peter Boynton (CEO, Kostas Research Institute at Northeastern University, LLC) presented in March 2020 at SCUP North Atlantic Regional Conference.

“Overcoming Accessibility Challenges with Inclusive Landscapes,” Sarah Tarbet with Christopher Becker (Statewide Accessibility Initiative, DCAMM), Carlo Urmy (Designer, Crowley Cottrell), and Jennifer Brooke (Principal, Lemon Brooke, LLC) presented in December 2020 at the ArchitectureBoston Expo (ABX) Virtual Tradeshow.

A word on culture.

Beyond the intrinsic physical characteristics of classrooms, there are cultural differences at every institution that necessitate unique solutions. MIT insists on chalkboards; whiteboards are verboten. Olin College of Engineering stresses that each entering class is a collective group, and the design studio is designed to support that ethos. Norwich University's history as a military academy brings structure and organization that may not be found elsewhere. Some colleges or schools operate independently within the university where they are housed; others are managed centrally. We inquire about these nuances and embrace them as part of our design.

MORE RESOURCES

“Overcoming Accessibility Challenges with Inclusive Landscapes,” Sarah Tarbet with Christopher Becker (Statewide Accessibility Initiative, DCAMM), Carlo Urmy (Designer, Crowley Cottrell), and Jennifer Brooke (Principal, Lemon Brooke, LLC) presentedin December 2020 at the ArchitectureBoston Expo (ABX) Virtual Tradeshow.

MORE RESOURCES:

Marc Perras Speaker Interview: Advancing Mass Timber Construction 2022.

Marc Perras provided a presentation, Lessons Learned Designing a Mass Timber Building in a Public Procurement Environment and tour of the C. Gerald Lucey Building for the Advancing Mass Timber Construction Conference.

2023 ENR Best Project Award-Office/Retail/Mixed-Use Category. 2022 CMAA Project Achievement Award. Sustainable Construction Innovation, 2022 Award Recipient. Awarded by Built Environment Plus (BE+) and convened practitioner community at the Green Building Showcase for our CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) project: Mass Timber for Mass Workers, The C. Gerald Lucey Building in Brockton, MA.

Marc Perras and South County Post & Beam's Ethan Biederman collaborated on an article for High Profile's December 2022 Green Supplement Issue highlighting the sustainable and economic benefits of utilizing mass timber. The Promise of CLT: Top 6 Reasons for Using Mass Timber.

Marc Perras and Sarah Tarbet of Jones Architecture are featured speakers at the North Shore Technology Council Presentation, Building Sustainably: Trends in Green Architecture in April 2024.

On the Horizon

Hybrid is Here to Stay.

As we appear to turn the corner on the Covid-19 pandemic, our clients are reacting in different ways, but one underlying theme emerges: hybrid learning is here to stay. There is a consensus that there will be other pandemics or crises. Universities need to be ready to flip to remote settings at a moment’s notice. Faculty who may have been resistant to the technologies that support remote learning were forced to tackle them over the last year; some have even embraced the concept. The crisis also spawned invention — low-cost and user-friendly online collaborative software, guest speakers from across the globe, online breakout sessions for students, and integrating media into learning in new ways. As with our workplace clients, who are struggling with questions from employees about continuing to work remotely at least in a part-time capacity, higher education is hearing the same from faculty.

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
― W.B. Yeats

Technology on tap.

We are now working with several clients on technology improvements in an effort to overhaul classroom inventories to support hybrid settings. At a basic level, this means projector upgrades, cameras, microphones, and software. Many institutions are taking it as an opportunity to improve related technologies — assistive listening for example — to create more inclusive settings for their student body. The rapid turnover of technology (two-five-year lifespan) requires that these upgrades be focused on the backbone and infrastructure upgrade more than the device; we want to create solutions that can be readily updated.

Seat counts.

The tension between open and flexible classrooms, which necessarily have a lower seat count, and dense and fixed-seating classrooms, which result in a higher seat count has been discussed above. Registrars and provosts tasked with meeting the demand for seats in a given period are sometimes at odds with faculty who want to teach with active learning, high-touch methods. We are curious whether hybrid learning will present an opportunity to have half the class in-person in a flexible active-learning model, and the other half remote in breakout rooms online. Populations could alternate weekly in-person and remote. This would relieve the pressure on the tension between these room types.

MORE RESOURCES

“Buildings of the Past, Classrooms of the Future at Harvard University,” Sam Clement, Anne-Sophie Divenyi (Senior Capital Project Manager, Harvard FAS), Cara Noferi (Senior Planner, Harvard FAS), and Annie Rota (Director of Academic Technology, Harvard FAS); SCUP North Atlantic Regional Conference; New Haven, CT; Spring 2020.

“Trends in Classroom Design and Technology,” Rick Jones and Michael Pincus (Vantage Technology Consulting Group) gave a tour and symposium at Norwich University for AIA Vermont in 2018.

“Transforming Learning at Norwich University: Revitalizing a Historic Campus Core,” Sarah Tarbet, Michelle Crowley (Crowley Cottrell Landscape Architecture), and Aron Temkin (Dean of the College of Professional Schools); SCUP North Atlantic Regional Conference; Rochester, NY; Spring 2019.

MORE RESOURCES

“Technology and the Classroom,” Rick Jones, Parke Rhoads (Principal, Vantage Technology Consulting Group) and Jeanne Narum (Learning Spaces Collaboratory); Educause Learning Initiative Conference; Anaheim, CA; February 2019.

“Catalyzing Change in the Classroom at Olin College of Engineering,” Rick Jones, Aaron Hoover (Assistant Professor, Olin College of Engineering); SCUP North Atlantic Regional Conference; Worcester, MA; Spring 2017; also presented to Boston Society of Architects Roundtable in partnership with Steelcase.

“Planning for Learning Environments: Maximizing your Institutional Resources,” Rick Jones; Learning Environments Conference; Orlando, FL; 2013; also presented at the Society for Technology and Learning in Higher Education Annual Conference; Montreal, CA; Summer 2012.