Revere Chooses Perkins and Eastman as Architects for New High School

At a Revere Public School (RPS) Committee meeting RPS Superintendent Dr. Dianne Kelly announced that the design selection panel, which includes Dr. Kelly, Mayor Brian Arrigo and School Committee member Stacey Bronson Rizzo, has selected an architect to design the new Revere High School.

“The work to bring a new high school is progressing,” said Kelly. “The Mayor, Committeewoman, Bronson Rizzo and I are part of the designers selection panel and we met on February 2 with the team from Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA). I’m pleased to say that we selected Perkins and Eastman as our designer for the new high school.”

Kelly said that the city’s project manager is currently working with Perkins and Eastman and the city to establish a contract.

“Hopefully at our next committee meeting, we have to make sure the contract gets executed, or shortly thereafter they will be able to present to the committee,” said Kelly. “Some ideas that they have are big picture ideas that made them a front runner from the other applicants so that’s really exciting that we’re moving forward with that.”

One hurdle said Kelly is picking a location for the new high school.

“The firm will help us first finalize where this high school is going to be,” said Kelly. “That’s going to be the big question that’ll drive the rest of the questions that come after that.”

Perkins and Eastman beat out three other firms for the chance to design the new Revere High School.
“We are really excited to work with Perkins and Eastman. In the end, they were one of the highest ranked design firms we interviewed,” said Kelly. “They presented innovative ideas for a variety of sites and did extensive research into the Revere context.  They have a focus on diversity which is really important to us and their status as a national company provides insight on progressive trends in school building structures.”

Kelly said their aesthetic focuses on universal design to meet the needs of all learners in Revere. 

Perkins and Eastman have worked on several local projects including Essex Tech, Boston Arts Academy, and Taunton High School.

“These projects demonstrate their local understanding and ability to work effectively with the MSBA,” said Kelly. “Students were obviously center in the school design samples they showed us which was really exciting and aligned with our philosophy of education.  It is a very exciting next step in this process, which we hope will serve and galvanize the entire community for many decades to come.”

In April the MSBA voted to authorize inviting the City of Revere to collaborate with the MSBA in conducting a Feasibility Study to build a new high school in the city.

Revere was one of five school districts chosen by the MSBA on April 15 with the others being the Town of Brookline, the City of Haverhill, the Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District, and the Town of Webster.

The vote by the MSBA came on the heels of a vote by the Revere City Council to approve a $2 million appropriation to begin the Feasibility Study to build a new high school in the city back in February 2020. In 2018 Revere Public Schools cleared a major hurdle during a MSBA board meeting. At that meeting the MSBA board voted to invite Revere and ten other school districts that filed Statements of Interest (SOI) this year to take part in the eligibility process that could ultimately lead to grant money to build a new high school here

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