The 178,000 square-foot Josiah Quincy Upper School (JQUS)  is a vertical urban campus that transforms a one-acre site in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood into a six-story educational facility serving 650 students in grades 6-12. Completed in 2024, this LEED Platinum-certified building establishes an academic gateway alongside the 1976 Josiah Quincy Elementary School.

The lower two levels house community-oriented spaces, including a 435-seat auditorium, black box theater, double-height cafeteria with full-service kitchen, media center, and gymnasium. Academic spaces occupy the upper floors, featuring southern-oriented classrooms with expansive daylighting, science laboratories, and central, flexible learning collaborative zones.

The design emphasizes connectivity to nature despite its urban context. A 16,000-square-foot accessible rooftop includes an outdoor STEM classroom, educational gardens, and walking paths.

A custom entrance plaza mural integrates cultural elements and school symbolism, while the vertical circulation core efficiently links academic and community function spaces.

Notable features include:

• Four-story-deep trusses provide column-free spans across public spaces.
• Creative vertical stacking maximizes space utilization on the constrained urban site.
• Advanced HVAC systems with enhanced filtration mitigate impacts of pollutants from the adjacent I-90 and I-93 highways.
• Zero-carbon design powered entirely by electricity, with rooftop photovoltaic arrays providing 14% of operational power.

Awards

• 2025 BSA Design Awards, Educational Facilities, Commendation
• 2025 Built Environment Plus, Green Building of the Year
• 2025 Built Environment Plus, People’s Choice Award
• 2025 American School & University Architectural Portfolio Awards, William W. Caudill Citation
• 2025 Learning By Design Spring Educational Facilities Design Awards, Grand Prize
• 2025 ENR New England Regional Best Project, K-12 Education
• 2025 ENR New England Regional Best Projects, Project of the Year, Finalist
• 2025 IES Illumination Awards, Award of Merit