The residents in Saugus, Massachusetts, celebrate their history and keep it alive in the industrial and colonial architecture that can be seen throughout town. The new Saugus Middle High School is an extension of this, reflecting the town’s history steeped in iron works, ice and lobstering, while embracing a STEAM-driven education focus. A combination of Dri-Design aluminum panels—flat, Tapered Series and Stenciled Graphic panels—were used at the entrance of the school to express this goal.
“Metal was the natural choice given the inspiration of the historic Saugus Iron Works. A National Historic Site just outside of Boston, the Saugus Iron Works is considered the birthplace of the American iron and steel industry and served as design inspiration for the new facility,” says Melissa Greene, a senior associate at HMFH Architects in Cambridge, Mass., and a project architect on the Saugus project. “The Tapered Series allowed for the creation of a basket-weave look, which really animated those forms on the building and articulated them in a more human-scaled way. Dri-Design also offered the ability to incorporate custom graphics and colors that were important to the success of the design.”
Sunrise Erectors Inc. installed Tapered Series Panels (11,891 square feet), Flat Panels (3,807 square feet) and Stenciled Graphic panels (2,878 square feet). The panels are 0.080-inch painted aluminum in Somber Gray and DustBlue colors. The wall construction consisted of an air vapor barrier, horizontal continuous 4-inch deep Greengirt thermally broken furring, four-inch Roxulsafe mineral wool insulation and the Dri-Design panels.
For this project, Sunrise Erectors field verified the completed elevations for the panel releases and also released panels for elevations that needed to be constructed. Coordination with the construction manager was required and very important to hold the dimensions on new elevations that were constructed after the panel release. By releasing the panels in this two-pronged approach, Sunrise Erectors could accommodate the material lead time and construction schedule.
This was the first time Sunrise Erectors installed Dri-Design panels. Since the 2020 project, the team has selected Dri-Design for other installs.
The 271,000-square-foot school is for students grades six through 12. The space has a 750-seat auditorium, cafeteria, gym and student cafe. The middle and high schools are separated by academic zones with shared common spaces. The students have much to explore with a shared maker space and tech shops for a woodshop, broadcast studio, coding and web/graphic design lab, as well as 3D design and computer-aided design labs.
