The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

Town Clerk’s office closed on Friday, February 22

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From Town Hall:

The Wellesley Town Clerk’s Office will be closed all day on Friday, Feb. 22 due to construction in an area on the first floor of Town Hall. The office will return to regular business hours (8am to 5pm) on Monday, Feb. 25. Contact the Town Clerk with questions.

Construction work will also impact the Treasurer/Collector’s Office on Friday, February 22. For now, that office will remain open for regular business hours (8am to 5pm) or will relocate to the Assessor’s Office, which is next to the Juliani Room on the First Floor of Town Hall, to accept any payments from residents.

Payments may also be made using the secure drop-box outside the Washington Street entrance to Town Hall.

Thank you for your patience.

Beyond Wellesley: sneak peek at renovated Hood Museum at Dartmouth College

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I recently was let in for a sneak peek at the newly renovated and rebuilt Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Joining me on the guided tour of the 62,000 square-foot building was a bunch of big-dawg types from places like The Guggenheim, Architectural Digest, The Boston Globe, and others, all eager to see the three-story building designed by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. Working within a tight footprint, the husband-and-wife team nearly doubled the exhibition spaces and greatly expanded the teaching areas. They did it partly by playing a giant game of Tetris, moving some walls walls and reconfiguring galleries, and partly by snitching space from an interior courtyard.

I hadn’t been into The Hood since just before it closed almost three years ago for for the $50 million expansion and renovation project. Back then visitors slipped in through a tucked-away entrance, and toured galleries that cried out for natural light. Now visitors boldly walk through an entrance that opens up onto the Dartmouth Green. Natural light pours into galleries in which the art benefits from brightness, but many galleries remain windowless to protect sensitive works.

Join me on my tour of Dartmouth’s newest building:

Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
Architects Billie Tsien (left) and Tod Williams deliver remarks at the press preview of the Hood Museum of Art, located on the campus of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
An installation of post-war art in the Hood’s new Northeast Gallery. The work at the far right is a recent acquisition, Wind Dancing With Spring Flowers, by American artist Alma Woodsey Thomas.
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
A view across the renovated second-floor galleries, which feature installations of contemporary African art, Melanesian art, and contemporary Aboriginal Australian art. The acrylic and oil on canvas, left, is a recent acquisition by Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga titled L’attitude face a la Mondialisation (Attitudes Towards Globalization). 
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
A view from the second-floor staircase to the lobby. It gets cold up in Hanover, and Dartmouth students have historically used the lobby of the Hood as a cut-through from one part of campus to the next. The renovation kept that feature partly as a way to avoid a potential uprising of students distraught over having to walk all the way around the building, and partly to send a welcoming message.
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
“The $50 million it took to make the Hood project happen was funded 100% through philanthropy,” says John Stomberg, Museum Director. The museum has over 65,000 works in its collection.
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
American art from the Hood’s permanent collection in the new second-floor galleries.
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
Bob Haozous, Apache Pull-Toy, 1988, painted steel.
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
Front entrance of the Hood, which opens directly onto the Dartmouth Green. The museum now has two floors of public exhibition spaces and study galleries, a third floor for administrative offices, and a lower level for object storage and exhibition preparation. The Hood was originally designed by architect Charles Moore, and it opened in 1985. See this New York Times story for more on Moore (deceased in 1993), and the Charles Moore Foundation’s less-than-enthusiastic response to the changes. Photo credit: Arifa Toor

 

 

 

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Natural Resources Commission to discuss Hunnewell fields; illegal tree cutting on Central St.

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PUBLIC MEETING: Natural Resources Commission
WHEN: Thursday, January 24, 2019
WHERE: Kingsbury Room, Wellesley Police Department

One item on the Natural Resources Commission meeting agenda is a hearing to discuss the restoration of the Lee/Hunnewell softball fields.

Hunnewell Field #2, softball, WellesleyAround this time last year those fields, which sandwich the tennis courts at Hunnewell Field, got closer to an upgrade when the Community Preservation Committee unanimously approved $100k in funds for new designs.

The abysmal condition of the fields currently stand in stark contrast to the beautiful nearby Reidy Field, played on by Wellesley Little Leaguers. Supporters of the project want the softball fields to be regulation size, to get new backstops and dugouts with storage, and to be ADA accessible. Nice new bleachers and scoreboards are also planned, as is a softball/baseball cage for pitching and batting.

Construction could get going as soon as spring/summer 2019.

There’s going to be a lot of sports-related construction/maintenance around town once the weather cooperates. In addition to the Hunnewell Fields, the two synthetic Sprague fields will undergo a $1 million maintenance project this summer. Then there’s the Wellesley Sports Center on the westbound side of Route 9, under construction now and expected to open in spring 2019.

Money can’t grow on cut trees in Wellesley

Tree cutting, Wellesley Square
Hack job at Wellesley Square. Photo credit: NRC

The NRC will also discuss the several  public shade trees that earlier this month they say were pruned illegally by a private tree company hired by a Wellesley Square landlord. The NRC said the trees in the 75 Central Street area suffered “multiple poorly executed cuts that will reduce their chance of survival” (read: hack job).

The violation is one of the agenda items on the NRC’s January 24th meeting.

 

Construction update for Hunnewell School in Wellesley

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The School Building Committee in a public meeting last night in the Kingsbury Room at the Wellesley Police Department presented further analysis and a tentative shortlist of four options for a new or rebuilt Hunnewell Elementary school. Two of the options laid out plans for addition/renovation of the 80-year-old, one-story structure, and two of the options are for new construction.

Two of the four options offer the potential (but not a guarantee) of saving the 200-year-old, 30-foot-tall White Oak Tree that graces the front courtyard outside the entrance of the 28 Cameron St. school. More on that here.

Hunnewell School, Wellesley

Late last year at a joint meeting at Town Hall of the School Building Committee and the Board of Selectmen, representatives from the Compass Management Team laid out ten possible scenarios for bringing the kindergarten – Grade 5 school into the 21st century. Since that time, the School Building Committee has reviewed those ten possible plans and now they are winnowed them down to four. Last night’s meeting was a presentation of each of those four possibilities. Major issues that require attention at Hunnewell: antiquated heating, plumbing electrical, and fire alarm systems; modular classrooms being used well beyond their service life; and the challenges of one space used for the gym, cafeteria, and auditorium.

Whether the end result is renovation or tear-down, the feasibility study put together by the design team at SMMA Compass Project Management is heavy on sustainable design. Using what will be a major building project as an opportunity to create a net-zero energy use situation is a goal of many in town. A building with net-zero energy consumption is one in which the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site. According to the feasibility study, that can be achieved in part through ultra-low water use features, solar panels, and through use of daylight in the interior of the building. Here’s a link to the study.

There will be a Public Forum meeting on January 29, 2019 at the Hunnewell Gym,  7pm to 9pm

Wellesley sports news: Sprague synthetic turf fields to get a facelift

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It may seem like only yesterday that two of the five Sprague Fields were converted from grass to synthetic, but a decade flies by when kids are having fun playing sports. Now the heavily used fields, originally constructed in June – October 2008,  are due for maintenance to the tune of $1 million.

The synthetic fields are referred to as Sprague 2 and 3, and are located between Sprague Elementary School and Wellesley Middle School. The fields are part of a playing field complex that is used for school sports and Recreation Department permitted events including football, soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, baseball, and tennis.

Wellesley Sprague Field 2
Wellesley Sprague Field 2

In fair condition

In September 2017 a Civil Field Report of the fields’ condition commissioned by the Town was conducted by Gale Engineering. The report noted that the existing field carpet is in fair condition and showing signs of wear and recommended that it be replaced. Specifically, in many areas the turf fibers are matted, and in some areas the thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) and sand infill is starting to become visible. Although the turf fibers are not excessively degraded (for example, when rubbed by hand they don’t break easily or come loose), there is significant wear in high-impact areas. The Town expects the project will include replacing the turf, reinstalling the TPE and sand infill, and repainting the lines, hopefully with minimal disruption to field use and the surrounding area.

Materials matter

It is most likely that the Town will stick with using TPE, the same fill material as was used during the 2008 construction of the project. The Town’s representative for the project, Town Engineer David Hickey, says, “Our preference for TPE is based on three things, first the research that was done with our first project, pointing us to TPE, and which is still relevant, next the user feedback which has been very favorable and lastly the potential to reclaim/reuse some material.”

Wellesley Sprague Field 3
Wellesley Sprague Field 3

Another popular material used for synthetic field fill is loose tire crumb, however questions have been raised by the public about that material’s possible association with various health and environmental hazards. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that limited studies have not shown elevated health risks from playing on fields with tire crumb. Still, the EPA is concerned enough about potential hazards to have committed, along with the Centers for Disease Control, to further study the possible effects of tire crumb exposure on human health. The Town has elected to stay away from the material, and there are no fields in Wellesley that are constructed using loose tire crumb.

Athletic Director John Brown said, “We are excited that we will be replacing the turf surfaces at Sprague Field this summer. The complex at Sprague has been great for all of our athletic programs in Town. When we initially built the turf fields with the TPE infill they were the first fields done with this product in the United States. We have found it to be tremendous. Our fields are the very best in the State. Our opponents and officials have all commented what a great surface we have. We have since used the same infill on the Stadium Field. We look forward to the new turf and to be back playing on two brand new surfaces next fall.”

I stopped by both the Sprague Fields and the Wellesley High School Stadium Field, and the difference is definitely noticeable. The WHS field, which was completed in 2016, has none of the fibers-matting issues that are clearly visible at Sprague. In addition, the fill materials at WHS have stayed put, whereas small, gray plastic pellets and yellow threads have surfaced at the Sprague fields (below).

Wellesley Sprague Field 2
TPE fill materials are in evidence on the surfaces of both Sprague Field 2 & 3.
Wellesley Sprague Field 2
In sections of Wellesley Sprague Field 2, determined weeds are poking through the synthetic material.

A summer project

The project is expected to start and end during summer 2019 over a period of 8 – 10 weeks.

There are no plans at this time to convert the three grass fields in the Sprague complex to synthetic turf.

Although only the two turf fields will undergo maintenance, Hickey says some of the other areas in the Sprague complex will be impacted for access, material storage and stockpile, “but we are hoping to minimize the impact to adjacent facilities.”

Unlike in 2008, when the Wellesley Community Preservation Committee (CPC) ponied up $1.5 million of the total $4 million cost of the project, none of the estimated $1 million cost of the 2019 project will come from the CPC  because maintenance work is not eligible for such funding. However, Hickey says the Town has a turf replacement fund that envisioned the fields’ maintenance needs and that it will be tapped to assist with the cost of the project.

Youth sports programs will also kick in some of the funds, but not in an overt fundraising sort of way. Part of the fees paid with typical permits or user fees goes toward the cost of keeping up the field.

Additional funding is likely to come from a capital project request, meaning borrowing. It is not yet known how that borrowing would be structured.

Putting together an “ask”

The Town put out a Request for Proposals for engineering services for the replacement of synthetic fields at Sprague Field in early 2018, with a deadline of December 21, 2018. All proposals were required to include plans, permits, and construction specifications, along with a fixed price fee for all work contemplated.

According to Town Engineer David Hickey, out of four consultant firms that put in proposals, “Gale Engineering, out of Weymouth, Massachusetts, the original consultant for both the Sprague fields and the more recent High School project, responded with the best proposal.”

There are still steps to go through before the contract is awarded, however. Hickey says, “It will be subject to the typical public procurement bidding process. We need to move pretty quickly, our goals are to have the consultant under contract by the end of January, and then produce the final technical documents by the end of February, so bidding can occur in March, hopefully fitting into a narrow construction summer window.”

The Town’s representative for this engagement will be David Hickey, P.E., Town Engineer, Department of Public Works, Engineering Division. Questions or comments regarding the project may be directed to him at (781) 235-7600, ext. 3310 or [email protected]

Sprague Field work, July 2008

 

Sprague Field work, August 2008

Wellesley College turf field also to be replaced

Not to be outdone by the townies, Wellesley College will this summer also replace their turf field and put in new lights. Big-time donors Alice Lehmann Butler, Wellesley College Class of  1953 and her husband, John Butler, Babson College Class of 1952 are kicking in major funds to make it happen, along with others.