Middlesex School-Rachel Carson Music and Campus Center

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Repurposed heating plant building turned into the music program.

As part of the master planning of Middlesex School's campus, CBT determined that the arts program was in need of more space in order to align with the school's strategic goals. However, with protected wetland and riverfront land surrounding three sides of the existing Arts building, expansion was limited to a very small portion of the site. At the same time, Middlesex was undertaking the conversion of their heating plant from a centralized system to a decentralized one, an initiative that would have rendered a large part of the plant underutilized. The circumstances were perfect for the transfer of arts programming to a less-conventional campus space, and a dramatic conversion was realized. The plant has been repurposed to provide the school's desired music programming, as well as new classrooms, student gathering spaces, and amenities. An additional advantage to the school was the reimagining of this campus "back door" into an important terminus to the campus’ academic core, which recaptured a critical area of their historic campus for daily academic and performing arts uses. 

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