MANCHESTER/ESSEX

Dore & Whittier Selected as Project Manager for School Building Project

The Manchester Essex Regional School District and the School Building Committee have selected Dore & Whittier as Owner’s Project Manager (OPM) for the Essex Elementary School Building Project.

Dore & Whittier’s selection was approved by the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) at its Board of Directors meeting on Monday, April 7.

Dore & Whittier, with offices in Newburyport and in Burlington, VT, has been providing owner’s project management services for more than 30 years. The company has supported dozens of construction and renovation projects such as Pine Grove School in Rowley, and West Parish Elementary School and East Veterans Elementary School in Gloucester.

Dore & Whittier will provide project management services including advice and consultation with respect to design, value engineering, scope of the work, cost estimating, scheduling, construction and more.

In November 2022, consultants Habeeb & Associates publicly shared its needs assessment of both Essex Elementary and Manchester Essex Middle High School. The study identified that Essex Elementary, which opened in 1957, has passed its useful life and requires about $9 million in capital investment.

As the District continues through the Feasibility Study Phase, a designer will be selected for the project. The OPM and selected designer will then document the educational programming, generate an initial space summary, document existing conditions, establish design parameters, develop and evaluate alternatives, and recommend the most cost-effective and educationally appropriate preferred solution to the MSBA for consideration.

Timeline:

• The School Building Committee will develop a request for design services by April 22.
• The District will hold kickoff meetings with Dore & Whittier on April 22-24.
• Architect proposals are due on June 18.
• The District will meet with the MSBA Designer Selection Panel on July 15 and select the architect no later than July 29. ♦

[Editor’s Note: Massachusetts does not have uniform school building designs for various size communities (i.e., option A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N). Instead, each school district and the state undergoe extensive expenditures in architectural activities specific to each school construction, in addition to the obvious site-specific requirements of land and utilties.]