Madison Park rebuild, estimated at $650 million to $700 million, moves to a project manager shortlist on Wednesday

The rebuild of Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in Roxbury reaches its next step on Wednesday. A Public Facilities Department selection committee will meet Nov. 4 from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at the Bolling Building, 2300 Washington St., to shortlist firms to serve as the project's owner's project manager (public notice).

The owner's project manager acts as the city's representative on a large building project. It tracks cost and schedule, checks estimates and advises the city on design and construction. The city's request for qualifications puts the total project cost at $650 million to $700 million, subject to approval by the Massachusetts School Building Authority. It says the city is considering a construction-manager-at-risk contract and that the project may be covered by a project labor agreement (city RFQ). Firms' qualifications were due Oct. 21. After the shortlist, the committee will interview the finalists, and the top-ranked firm will negotiate a fee for the feasibility study and schematic design.

Madison Park is the city's only vocational high school and offers 20 state-certified career and technical programs, according to the city. The state authority, which is funded by one cent of the state sales tax, invited the school into its program in December 2025. The city says it finished the eligibility period in about 60 days, compared with a typical 270, and that the authority then voted to move the project into the feasibility phase. Wu called that "a big step closer" to renovating the school.

What our records show

The council's $5 million vote. The council approved $5 million for the feasibility study and schematic design (docket 1311). It needed two votes: one on July 22 and a final vote on Aug. 5, 12-0, with Gabriela Coletta Zapata absent. A companion order (docket 1312) covered $850,000 for window, door and roof design at six other schools.

The July 15 hearing. At the Ways and Means hearing on both orders, Chair Benjamin Weber said the authority's board invited Madison Park into its eligibility period on Dec. 12, 2025 (watch at 5:12). City Councilor Miniard Culpepper, whose district includes the school, asked about the John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science, which shares the campus, noting that Madison Park is set to be finished in 2033 (1:12:40). A BPS official answered that the district had "no renovation or new build plan in the pipeline" for the O'Bryant (1:15:22).

Two records requests. On July 22, the council passed two Culpepper requests for information under Section 17F of the city charter. One seeks the documents the city has sent the state authority for Madison Park (docket 1423). The other asks about capital planning for the O'Bryant (docket 1422). Culpepper told the council that other communities in the state program post these documents online and that Boston should do the same for "a project as consequential as rebuilding and modernizing the city's only technical vocational high school" (watch at 1:54:55). Our records show no city response filed for either request, 101 days later.

What's next

After the shortlist come interviews, a fee negotiation and then the hiring of a designer, the city says. That team will run the feasibility study, which compares renovation, replacement and other options. Construction money would come back to the council later as a much larger appropriation, with the state authority covering part of the eligible cost.