Meanwhile, students continue to attend classes in the existing school, which opened in 1963 as Plymouth Carver Regional High School. The lighting, plumbing, and fire alarm systems are outdated. It has modular classrooms (not so affectionately dubbed “the portables’’) that were attached in 1985. Inside the school hallways, the air is humid and muggy. The roof needs to be replaced. During a recent storm, ceiling tiles fell onto the floor and garbage barrels were strategically placed in classrooms to collect leaking rainwater.
The new Plymouth North building was designed by Wayland-based Ai3 Architects LLC, which has designed several school buildings south of Boston, including Whitman-Hanson Regional High School, which opened in 2005, and the brand new Norwood High School.
Like Norwood High, Plymouth North is a “model school’’ project, its blueprint adapted from a previous design.
The architects describe the new Plymouth North as classically designed, inspired by the Federal style of the Massachusetts State House and the original Plymouth High School building, which now houses Nathaniel Morton Elementary School.
It will have an outdoor courtyard, a garden on the roof, solar panels, a system that recycles water, and electric car charging stations in the parking lot. The project is slated to receive a gold rating from the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification program, which rates buildings on their sustainability and energy efficiency. (The builders originally hoped to earn the highest LEED rating - platinum - by installing a wind turbine on the campus, but that plan was dropped after neighbors voiced concern about the proposed turbine.)
