Skanska Completes 188,000-SF Brookline High School Expansion Project

BROOKLINE, MA — The construction and development firm Skanska has completed its 118,000-square-foot expansion to Brookline High School (BHS), the company said Wednesday.

The school now includes a brand new, 118,000-square-foot building, which spans partially over the MBTA Green Line’s Brookline Hills Station. The building places a special focus on physics and features ample lab space, classrooms for general use, dedicated event space, dining and food service areas, a library, and various collaboration spaces.

Skanska also demolished a large portion of the existing High School in order to build a new, 70,000-square-foot S.T.E.M. wing addition, featuring biology and chemistry labs and classrooms, collaboration and maker spaces, a culinary arts kitchen, and student restaurant/café seating.

“S.T.E.M. education opens doors for students to pursue any job they want in any industry. In construction especially, skillsets learned through S.T.E.M. education are imperative to our daily operations,” Bryan Northrop, Executive Vice President and General Manager for Skanska USA Building in Boston, said in a statement . “Building what matters to the communities in which we work is important and fulfilling to all of us at Skanska, and we’re proud to deliver this crucial educational cornerstone to the Town of Brookline alongside our partners from Skanska Civil.”

Skanska’s Building and Civil construction teams worked closely with project architect Willian Rawn Associates, project manager Hill International, and the Town of Brookline to expand BHS throughout COVID-19 pandemic while school was in session. The team was successful in what was expected to be the greatest challenge of the project — building over an active MBTA Green Line — which required the installation of new catenary structures, the relocation of existing signal and communication cables, and the temporary relocation of the fare collection shelter and equipment.

“A good education is an invaluable tool that can unlock a future with endless possibilities,” Anthony Meyers, Head of School at Brookline High School, said in a statement. “The new additions to BHS, particularly the S.T.E.M. wing and expanded classroom and collaboration spaces, will allow our students to obtain an enriched education that will continue to serve them for the rest of their lives.”

The completed expansion of Brookline High School was well timed as the Town of Brookline is anticipating enrollment to reach nearly 2,100 students for the 2022-2023 school year, up from 1,774 in 2013 when the campus revitalization project was first being explored.