Beam Signing Celebrates 100-Year Anniversary of School Opening

BRISTOL, CT — As the school year ends for Bristol students, the community celebrated construction progress on the new Memorial Boulevard Intradistrict Arts Magnet School with a beam signing ceremony. The building, originally Bristol High School, first opened nearly a century prior.

Benesch provided civil/site engineering services for renovation of the landmark 96,000 square-foot building in the heart of downtown Bristol. Project Manager and former Bristol student Ryan Scrittorale was proud to join the celebration and add his name to the beam.

“Several generations of my family and I actually went to school in this building, so being able to go back and look at it from a new perspective has been a really cool experience,” said Scrittorale. “Seeing everyone gathered at the signing showed how much this renovation means to the community.”

The design for the historic, century-old building presented some unique challenges for the Benesch team. Located within the floodway, 100-year and 500-year floodplains of the Pequabuck River, the project required substantial local and state permitting. Additional services provided by Benesch included site grading and drainage plans, groundwater pump station design, traffic analysis, utility design, public involvement and erosion and sedimentation control design.

“Bristol is working hard to revitalize its downtown and reinvigorate the community. The residents provided their input on how this building should be used, and the City was able to find a way to get the most out of the space,” said Scrittorale.

As a city focal point, the building will offer a welcoming view to arriving visitors, while the 900-seat theater will help revive the area’s performing arts scene. The school will offer various visual and musical arts, theater, event management and communications programs to over 500 students in grades 6-12.

The signed beam will be the final one placed and will mark a key milestone for the project. Set to open in 2022, a ribbon cutting ceremony is planned to celebrate.