Marshall project on the beam

LYNN – The 1,800-pound iron beam hoisted onto the new Marshall Middle School skeleton will help frame the school’s gymnasium once the Brookline Street building opens in 2016. But Friday, it provided a focal point for builders and local elected officials to celebrate the school’s construction.With construction scheduled to be completed in June 2016, Marshall will be the first Lynn public school built from the ground up since a new Classical High School was constructed in 1997.It will provide space to educate 1,100 sixth- through eighth-graders on Brookline Street next to the commuter rail tracks.Covered with signatures, including the names of ironworkers and other construction workers who have been on the project since May, the beam’s raising marked a pivotal point in Marshall’s construction for School Superintendent Catherine Latham.”This symbolizes construction has reached the sky with a safe job well done,” Latham said.Gene Raymond, principal of the project’s design firm, said steel framing work ends next week, with walls taking shape on the new school during the winter and workers completing the school roof.The building features brick masonry and a glass front designed around a central entranceway off Brookline Street. There will be two wings, one at the school’s Empire Street end and the other nearer Chatham Street. One of those wings will include the gym and a “cafetorium” that can be converted into an auditorium.The school will be organized around 10 classroom clusters each with core academic classrooms and about 120 students. Latham said the clusters are designed to give students a sense they are part of a smaller “school family” even as they attend a large school.Marshall will also offer cooking, sewing and other classes Latham said are intended “to inspire lifelong learning.””These are things I feel should be in all schools,” she said.Raymond said about 50 workers are currently building Marshall, but the workforce will double as the project’s new phases unfold.”The challenge is to keep the project on budget,” he said.Boston-based contractor Walsh Brothers, Inc. is managing the project. Project executive Michael Mallett said two firms, S & F Concrete and Structures Derek, are responsible for foundation and steel structural work.State Rep. Robert Fennell and City Councilor and state Rep.-elect Brendan Crighton joined Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy at the topping-off ceremony along with City Councilors Gordon “Buzzy” Barton and Darren Cyr and School Committee members Rick Starbard and Charlie Gallo.A family obligation kept longtime Marshall construction proponent and Lynn School Committee member John Ford from attending the beam raising, but Ford said Friday marked eight years of state review, approval and local planning for the new school.”This is a great benchmark to reach,” he said.