Sudbury Mulls Options for Town Hall Renovation

The Town of Sudbury is considering renovating Town Hall to provide additional office, facility and operational space to insure the most effective administration of Town government and the most effective delivery of Town services to its citizens.

In a report by Combined Facilities Director Jim Kelly, Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype (bh+a) was retained by the Town to perform a Conditions Assessment and Recommendations for the renovation of the Town Hall, a Programming Assessment for the Town Offices in the Flynn building and the School Administration in the Fairbank Building, schematic drawings and cost estimate for the renovation. The Study was overseen by the Sudbury Permanent Building Committee. 

The selected Town Department and School Administration leaders filled out space planning questionnaires in order for Bh+a to better understand their space needs and adjacencies, Kelly reported. Bh+a also inventoried the current office layouts, furniture configurations, file storage, kitchen areas, and printing/copying needs in the Town Hall, Flynn Building and Fairbank Community Center.  

Many design options were produced for the Town offices moving to the Town Hall. Scheme 1 and Scheme 2 are reviewed in the Town Offices Programming Assessment and Recommendations section of the report. The preferred design concept removes the basement and one-story rear addition and creates a new rear addition that replicates the existing height and massing of the original.

Kelly reports two schemes were proposed for the School Administration moving into the Town Hall. The Committee decided that Scheme 2 for the School Administration was the preferred scheme. Scheme 2 provides a second-story addition on top of the 1955 building to gain more usable program space. It also provides a one story addition at the rear of the building for Selectmen and School Committee Meeting room, and allows the School Administration to gain more program space in the existing Town Hall. The designs address the programmatic needs as well as accessibility, egress, restroom requirements, and system upgrades to the building.  

If the Town offices move into the Town Hall, the school administration is slated to move into the Flynn Building. A third study was undertaken to determine programmatic needs of the Town Departments that would still occupy the Flynn building and program the School Administration into the remaining area. 

Cost estimates were prepared for the Town Office and School Administration schemes programed into Town Hall, as well as a scheme to renovate the building as-is, bringing it up to most current codes and solving accessibility issues, and a scheme to tear down the Town Hall and build a new building that uses space efficiently for the Town Offices or School Administration.  

The full report can be viewed on the Facilities Department web page: http://sudbury.ma.us/departments/Facilities.