The Community Center Building Committee has announced that the Town of Lincoln has hired ICON Architecture for professional services to develop plans for a community center within the Hartwell segment of the Lincoln School campus on Ballfield Road.
“It was a very difficult decision,” and references were a major factor, said Select Board member Jonathan Dwyer (the board’s liaison to the CCBC). Town Administrator Tim Higgins noted that ICON Architecture demonstrated openness in their past work to repurposing older buildings and were committed to the town’s sustainability goals.
Six firms submitted proposals and four were invited for interviews. There were two finalists — the other was Maryann Thompson Architects, which came up with the two design concepts that gained the most positive feedback from residents at a 2018 Special Town Meeting.
The most recent cost estimates in November 2022 pegged the project at about $26 million, which caused considerable consternation among residents. Based on a Special Town Meeting vote in December 2022 when design funding was approved, the designer must develop a range of design choices and budgets, including options not to exceed 75% and 50% of the $25 million estimate, for the Hartwell complex (supplemented or not with existing available town space).
ICON Architecture — a women-owned Boston firm that specializes in institutional building types, building renewal, multi-family, and affordable housing — will develop schematic design options in preparation for a vote on a preferred design and budget at a Special Town Meeting in November 2023.
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