Last month Doherty High was selected for MSBA’s Story of a Building, where staff from districts who are at the early stages of their own school construction projects spend a day touring a recently completed project and hearing from the project team and the school district about the challenges and opportunities of a project of this scale.

Attendees heard from LPA|A’s Christina Bazelmans, Liz Wambui from Fontaine Construction and two students about the Living Lab Initiative that was undertaken in partnership with the Worcester Public Schools over the course of the six years that Doherty was in design and construction.

They shared some of the activities students were able to engage in to learn more about careers in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industries, including tours through the construction site, job fairs where students met with union and company representatives, as well as internships and classroom presentations. Christina had also participated in an MSBA Roundtable a few weeks prior to talk about this same topic with the design community.

Other sessions throughout the day were on the topics of the visioning and early planning process, the importance of capital planning, and building a successful partnership between the municipality and school district.

Students from Doherty led tours through the building, giving attendees the opportunity to hear directly from building occupants how the spaces are working for them. The presentations, tours and student perspectives were well received and appreciated by attendees.