Yale and the Dwight neighborhood's decade-long partnership for community revitalization will mark another successful milestone on Sunday, May 6, when the neighborhood officially opens a new addition to the Timothy Dwight Elementary School.
The addition has been built through a unique collaboration among the Greater Dwight Development Corporation (GDDC), the New Haven Board of Education, educators and parents at the school, the City of New Haven, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Yale School of Architecture.
The 10,000-square-foot building addition will provide much-needed assembly space both for the elementary school and for use by the neighborhood throughout the year.
Yale students, faculty and administrators will be among those gathering for the ceremony marking the opening, which will be held at 2 p.m. at the school, 130 Edgewood Ave. The public is invited to join with neighborhood residents, Mayor John DeStefano Jr., Superintendent of Schools Reginald Mayo, School Principal Bernadette Strode and other civic leaders for the ceremony.
Planning for the project originated at a community "charrette," a three-day forum organized at the neighborhood's request by the School of Architecture's Urban Design Workshop and funded by HUD through a Community Outreach Partnerships Center grant. The charrette, held in 1995, gave more than 300 participants -- residents, consultants, business owners, Yale students and faculty, members of the public school community and representatives of city government -- the opportunity to express concerns, present ideas and develop solutions to problems confronting the neighborhood and the city as a whole. One of the chief goals established at the charrette was an assembly space for the school that could also serve as a community multi-purpose room when school is not in session.
In 1996, as part of its goal to provide resources to help the Dwight neighborhood achieve its goals, Yale secured one of only five Joint Community Development Grants awarded to universities to support community revitalization initiatives. This $2.4 million grant has provided funds to the neighborhood to support projects carried out by the GDCC and the city. Funding from the grant contributed $400,000 toward completion of the Dwight School addition. More than $2 million in funding came from a State of Connecticut School Construction Grant awarded to New Haven, and the remaining $380,000 came from the city itself. Construction began last June. The Dwight School project is part of the unprecedented comprehensive public school building and renovation campaign initiated by the Mayor throughout the city.
Michael Haverland, co-director of the Yale Urban Design Workshop and assistant professor of architecture, served as the project designer. He worked with students at the School of Architecture to design the new portion of the school. Also assisting in the project were affiliates of the School of Art, who helped with the signage for the addition; the School of Nursing, who advised on issues of safety; the School of Drama, who handled the lighting; the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, who worked on landscaping around the addition; and the Law School, who collaborated on issues of access and security.
Neighborhood residents were involved in the project from the beginning, along with colleagues from the city government and New Haven Public Schools. "The project is a model of cooperation," says Haverland. "It illustrates how important public works of architecture can be generated from a bottom-up planning process involving collaborative design."
Costing $2.8 million to build, the addition includes a multi-purpose room that seats 500 and can function as an auditorium for the entire school population as well as a community center. The school, originally completed in 1963 and designed by Eliot Noyes, had no indoor recreation space or assembly hall. The project also includes two meeting rooms, a new front lobby for the school, a courtyard and two gardens. The space will be used both by the school and the neighboring community.
"We are proud of the role Yale architecture faculty and students have had in realizing the Dwight School addition, which is distinctly a building for our time, representing design in the service of community," says School of Architecture Dean Robert A.M. Stern. "Boldly modern and distinctly its own thing, the new portion of Dwight School also connects positively with the neighborhood, offering young students a light-filled optimistic setting for learning. Inside and out affirms our commitment to education for the future."
Design development and preparation of the construction documents were carried out by TAMS Consultants, Inc., the architects of record, in consultation with Haverland and the Urban Design Workshop. Salamone & Associates P.C. designed the mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems. A. Prete Construction Co. was construction manager. Balmori Associates provided landscape design. Daniel Haim of the New Haven Public Schools was project manager.
In February of this year the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture honored Haverland and the Urban Design Workshop for the Dwight School with the Collaborative Practice Award. Paul Ruchinskas, executive director of the GDDC, calls the planning process "a really unique and positive partnership," adding, "I'm incredibly excited -- I think the entire neighborhood is excited that this addition provides not only space for the children of the school, but for the community to use during non-school hours. It's a wonderful space and will be an outstanding resource for the community for concerts, plays, art shows and other activities."
The Dwight School addition marks another milestone in the positive growth of New Haven that is being accomplished by community partnerships involving neighborhood groups, city government, local businesses, and organizations such as Yale, says Yale's Vice President and Director of New Haven and State Affairs Bruce Alexander.
In the Dwight neighborhood alone, recent years have seen the development of Dwight Place on Whalley Avenue, anchored by Shaw's Supermarket; continued increases in public safety thanks to community policing; and new investments in homeownership, including home purchases by Yale employees assisted by the Yale Homebuyer Program, he notes.
"The Dwight School addition once again demonstrates the success New Haven enjoys when people work together," says Alexander. "New Haven is a strong community and it is growing even stronger. There is no limit to what this community can achieve if we all continue to recognize the many interests we share and keep working in this spirit of cooperation."
-- By Gila Reinstein
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