Wayland High School - Architecture and Construction

Architecture and Construction

Wayland High School's old open campus was designed by Herbert Gallagher and John "Chip" Harkness of The Architects' Collaborative, who were hired by the Town of Wayland in January 1958; the two were assisted by the renowned architect Walter Gropius. The School Building Committee interviewed 10 architectural firms before finally making its decision.

Construction was carried out by the N.D.C. Construction Company Inc., headed by James Cazanas, who was a resident of Wayland. Another construction company, Post Products, Inc., headed by J.O. Post, provided the acoustical tiles for the school. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on April 25, 1959.

Said Cazanas of the project in The Town Crier, "I was very much upset when I saw the plans for the High School...The plans, for a series of single story buildings, seemed to contradict all the usual rules of economic construction. On top of this, a circular field house: circular, on both horizontal and vertical planes."

Despite his surprise of the High School's structure, Cazanas was confident of the school's innovation: "There won't be another school anywhere around like this one...There is so much there to interest everyone that it will be a center of activities in Wayland as well as a High School." He even claimed, "This site is a contractor's dream. I don't expect to see another like it."

The Town Crier even noted how the project was the "cheapest per square foot building his company built since the war."

The High School was expected to accommodate 900 students and be able to expand to address the needs of as many as 1200 students.

Interestingly enough, the constructors first poured the concrete for the floors and then the roofs on top afterwards, separating the two with a separating membrane. They then jacked up the roofs.