A new community center rises in a Massachusetts city in transition

Last month, ground broke on a 110,000-sf lot in Dorchester, Mass., for The Fieldhouse+, a 75,000-sf sports and community center that is designed to serve children of all ages.

The facility, which is scheduled to open next year, is a joint-venture development of the Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester and The Martin Richard Foundation. The Club, which will operate The Fieldhouse+, has three other buildings in the city: a youth center with a theater, auditorium, and classrooms; another with a swimming pool and basketball court; and one for administrative and programming offices. The Foundation’s namesake is an eight-year-old boy who was the youngest victim of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

The Columbia Point site on which the $70 million Fieldhouse+ is being built had been an asphalt space with some playground equipment and a small field, says Kevin Deabler, AIA, LEED AP, cofounder (with Eric Robinson) of RODE Architects, the project’s designer. The site was chosen for its proximity to 50,000 children within a three-mile radius. The site is also next door to 1,000 Boston Public Schools students. Deabler expects daily use of around 1,000 kids once The Fieldhouse+ opens.

Deabler says this project is happening in a city that is Boston’s largest and most diverse neighborhood which, despite its housing shortage, has seen civic improvements. Planning for The Fieldhouse+ had considerable community input. Because it’s on school-owned land, the building required a public RFP. The Foundation also came up with the idea of forming advisory groups that included youth involvement. The city also had to sign off on the project.

Emphasis on inclusion

Deabler calls The Fieldhouse+ “one of the most exciting projects we’ve done.” The building devotes its third floor to a 150x85-ft turf playing field “like the ones in suburban neighborhoods,” he says. There are two basketball courts on the facility’s ground floor, and a walking track on the second. The Fieldhouse+ also has a music room, a black-box theater, a teaching kitchen, a fitness center, roof garden, offices, studios, and other gathering areas.

The front yard of The Fieldhouse+ will incorporate a café, terraced seating, gardens, outdoor courts, and retail space.

Deabler notes that the community at large will benefit from The Fieldhouse+ whose “focus” is on inclusion for people of all abilities. “The Fieldhouse+ would support those with physical and neurological disabilities” whom The Boys and Girls Club may not be reaching now.

The Building Team on this project includes Lee Kennedy Company (CM), CSL Consulting LLC (Owner’s Project Manager), LeMessurier (SE), Stoss Landscape Urbanism (Landscape Architect), BR+A Consulting Engineers (MEP/FP), Lam Partners (lighting), Howard Stein Hudson (Transportation and CE), and The Green Engineer (Sustainability).