Worcester Vocational High School

Dubbed by its community as “The School That Works,” Worcester Technical High School truly lives up to this moniker as it redefines technical education.  Hovering somewhere between a community college, first-rate high school, and employment education and training center, the new state-of-the art, technology-rich school is a 400,000 SF miracle. 

Heery served as the project manager for this $90 million project, the largest public works project in the city’s history and the first new vocational high school in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since 1910.  It offers 24 separate tracks of study organized into four academies:  construction, manufacturing, health and business.  Each academy accommodates 300-400 students daily and 3,000 students for year-round evening and weekend training. 

Now a cornerstone of the business community, the school offers local residents the convenience of having many services in one place including a major bank, drug store, cafe, auto repair shop and salon. All of these are fully functional businesses used for training students.  Neighbors can come to the school to do their banking, pick up prescriptions, get a hair cut and even have lunch, while their cars are repaired.

This project is the recipient of the prestigious 2006 Grand Prize for Project Management from School Planning & Management’s Managing Excellence awards program, as well as the 2007 Excellence in Program Management citation from the Construction Management Association of America, New England Chapter Awards Program.