Pittsfield's Crosby/Conte Proposal Nearing Designer Selection
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The proposal to rebuild Crosby Elementary School and Conte Community School as a combined facility on West Street is advancing to design.
On Tuesday, the School Building Needs Commission approved a draft request for services for the Crosby/Conte project and created a designer selection committee to guide the next actions. The Pittsfield Public Schools are seeking up to 80 percent reimbursement from the Massachusetts School Building Authority for the build.
Skanska USA Building Inc. was approved as the owner's project manager in early April. An OPM is a hired consultant who oversees a construction or design project in the owner's interest.
The next step is to select a designer for the new building; a draft request for services is due to the MSBA by May 14. Applications are due to the district on July 1 and to MSBA by July 9, to be reviewed on July 28.
"My hope is that we can move the process as quickly as possible, meeting the first deadlines that become available," Interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips said.
The commission appointed seven members to the designer selection committee, including a superintendent's designee, Mayor Peter Marchetti, and co-Chair Frank LaRagione. They will review proposals, about 6-10 are expected, and interview the top three designers.
School officials in 2024 toured the 69,500-square-foot Silvio O. Conte Community School, which opened in 1974, and the 69,800-square-foot John C. Crosby Elementary School, which opened in 1962. At Conte, they saw an open concept community school that is not conducive to modern-day needs, and at Crosby, they saw a facility that was built as a middle school and in need of significant repair.
Last month, a statement of interest for repairs to Pittsfield High School was approved.
Priority areas identified for an SOI to the MSBA Core Program are for the replacement, renovation, or modernization of the heating system to increase energy conservation and decrease energy-related costs, and replacement or addition to obsolete buildings to provide a full range of programs consistent with state and local requirements.
This is what the school was found to be most eligible for. If invited into the program in December, a draft schedule places construction between 2031 and 2033.
Resident Paul Gregory attended the meeting to speak against the project, calling PHS a "toxic, sick" building that cannot be safely rehabbed. He is strongly opposed to the SOI and recommended expanding the Taconic campus instead.
Environmentalist Jane Winn, not addressing any specific project, urged the commission to investigate building an all-electric school with ground source heat pumps for heating and cooling.
Also during this meeting, Phillips reported that Taconic will see millions of state dollars to add a plumbing program to its vocational offerings. Last week, the Healey-Driscoll administration announced $70 million in career technical education program capital grants to 28 state high schools.
Taconic was allocated $4 million for a new plumbing program on campus, expected to begin this summer and be completed in a couple of years.
Tags: Crosby/Conte project,
