The new Dennis-Yarmouth Intermediate/Middle School sits in South Yarmouth, MA, and serves roughly 950 students and over 100 teachers and staff. It features two double-story classroom wings at the north end of the site, with bright light courts in the outdoor spaces created by the separation and orientation of the classroom wings. The shared areas – auditorium, cafeteria, gym, media center, and arts programs – are located on the south side near the main entry and arranged around a central commons space. The elegant 850-seat auditorium will be open to the wider public from around the school district for special occasions such as community meetings and theater.
The new school replaces two separate older schools – the Mattacheese Middle School in West Yarmouth and the Nathaniel H. Wixon Innovation School in South Dennis. The new intermediate / Middle School is designed to maintain some spatial separation of the two pre-existing schools by having two separate entrances and placing the 6th and 7th grades on the upper level and the 4th and 5th grades downstairs.
The project broke ground in April 2021 and was finished in February of the following year, coming in a full million dollars under the original budget. The fortuity of a favorable bidding climate allowed for significant scope expansion during construction, including the addition of two new artificial turf athletic fields with brand-new field lighting.
The Dennis-Yarmouth district includes an unusually high percentage of special-needs students, including those with physical disabilities. Our task was to not only make the building universally accessible, as required by law, but also to design an environment that fosters universal access to learning, with a number of specialized teaching that accommodate students’ varied learning styles and needs with an overall aesthetic atmosphere that is warm and calming for everyone. The approach includes details such as minimizing harsh angles in favor of curving lines and volumes. Another aesthetic emphasis – particularly evident in the well-considered graphic design – was biophilia, which highlights the natural contours and biology of the terrain across Cape Cod and greater New England.
