HMFH Architects
A Bridge Farther: Bridge Boston Featured in Metropolis
Metropolis features our design for Bridge Boston Charter School, which ensures students and families feel welcome, safe, and supported.
To support the social-emotional curriculum and wraparound services offered to underserved students and their families at Bridge Boston, HMFH designed a double-story atrium addition to act as the heart of the school and community. Flexible storage and furnishings allow the space to function as a library as well as open up to house gatherings and performances. Catwalks connect the brick core to the rest of the building—reflecting the metaphorical bridges built by the school’s impact.
‘A modern plan is successful only when it embraces every human need,’ wrote architecture critic Lewis Mumford in The Culture of Cities in 1938. Nowhere is this truer than in elementary education. Take Bridge Boston Charter School (BBCS) in the city’s Roxbury neighborhood, completed by HMFH Architects in 2017. A substantial percentage of the pre-K–8 school’s 335 students are from families that are homeless or facing challenges such as alcoholism or addiction. A newly renovated home for BBCS provides the equipment for academic success, engenders neighborhood pride, and in so doing helps fulfill the school’s mission: ‘To remove the health and social obstacles that hinder student learning.’”
