Five Questions With: Larry Spang

LARRY SPANG is a principal with Arrowstreet Inc., the Boston architectural firm that has designed the new Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy building in Cumberland. / COURTESY ARROWSTREET
LARRY SPANG is a principal with Arrowstreet Inc., the Boston architectural firm that has designed the new Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy building in Cumberland. / COURTESY ARROWSTREET

Larry Spang is a principal with Arrowstreet Inc., the Boston architectural firm that has designed the new Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy building in Cumberland. The two-story structure will accommodate a classroom wing, a cafeteria, gymnasium and an outdoor, academic courtyard. Construction is expected to begin in December, with a completion date by the fall of 2017. The firm has designed a number of charter and traditional public schools in Massachusetts. In Rhode Island, Arrowstreet was the firm that designed the Providence Place mall. In a telephone interview with the Providence Business News, Spang discussed the building elements.
PBN: The design looks modern. What was the inspiration for the building?
SPANG:
We’re on Jones Street in Cumberland. It is near the Cumberland Town Hall behind Broad Street, in an area that buffers up against the Blackstone River watershed. It’s an interesting neighborhood that’s partially a residential neighborhood, and there is a strong, light industrial presence … along the river’s edge. The building was designed to be in scale with the residential neighborhood because that’s the context of what’s there. At the same time, it has the same simple massing and lines that you would expect not only in the light industrial or commercial buildings that are in the immediate neighborhood, but also in Cumberland, in general. The idea was to have it reflect a bit of that historic feel. We spent a while talking with the folks at the City Hall and the Planning Department. They have been doing design review. It’s trying to stay in scale with the neighborhood, trying to be reminiscent of the historical and industrial buildings in the area. It’s also trying to reflect some of the thinking from the school, which is a science- and math-based school.
PBN: What was the most interesting aspect of designing the programming for the school?
SPANG:
It’s a high school, grades 9-12. The interest in science, math and technology is very high. On the lower floor, we’ve grouped two science labs, the maker space and the art room in the portion of the wing that fronts the street. The idea is to create an interesting and compelling entrance, so when you walk up to the school you can feel some of that excitement that’s going on in those spaces. And on the inside, there are garage doors that will open up and the corridor will really spill out across the space. We’ll have a very exciting hub of science and technology right on the first floor. We think it’s going to create a nice emphasis on what they want. They’re really pushing the integration of technology into their teaching. All of the kids work on laptops, in this case Chromebooks. They do a lot of coding. There is another interesting piece to the work. In lieu of a library, we have an open media space. In many ways, you can think of it like a college student center. It’s a space that’s going to overlook the cafeteria. It’s going to have a balcony feel to it. It’s going to have loose seating, for the ability of small groups to work together. In today’s market, there is not a lot of need to store books.
PBN: What is different about designing charter schools? Are they less traditional, and does that reflect how you design a building for them?
SPANG:
Sort of, all the above. Charter schools typically have a very strong and identified mission for how they want to provide education. When they apply to become a school, they have to develop their curriculum and they have to apply to the state. Each one has its own mission. Blackstone happens to be science and technology, which allowed them to focus on it. We worked with one in Boston, the Conservatory Lab Charter School. Their focus is on music. The students practice music for two hours a day in an orchestral setting. We find each one is a little different. Unlike a somewhat typical public school, which provides a variety of programs for a variety of children … the charter schools tend to be more focused and so their buildings are more focused.
PBN: Is this your first project in Rhode Island?
SPANG:
This will be our first school in Rhode Island. We have done work as a firm. You may know the Providence Place mall. That was us a number of years ago.
PBN: Were Blackstone Valley students asked for any feedback on the design?
SPANG:
We had a very nice series of workshops to define what the school was trying to accomplish. That involved not only the school administration and faculty, but also the students. We had an interesting session with six to eight students. We had some model parts … classrooms, and a gymnasium and things like that. And we said, ‘What would you guys do if you had this site? How would you put this building together?’ And it was fun. They started talking and doing some modeling that gave us some interesting ideas about what they were interested in and what their priorities were.

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