Committee narrows senior center design firms to two

Senior Center Building Committee · Meeting of September 24, 2026

Watertown's new Senior Center Building Committee voted to invite two architecture firms back for further interviews after screening five finalists. Chair Mark Sideris and Vice Chair Anthony Palomba led the panel through presentations from Abacus, BH+A, EDM Studio, ICON Architecture and UTIL, each given 15 minutes plus three rotating questions. A member ranking exercise placed BH+A first with eight points, EDM Studio second with 17, UTIL third with 23, ICON fourth with 28 and Abacus fifth with 29.

Director of Senior Services Lydia McCoy said one firm's attention to a "billiard room" stood out for engaging older men, while member Lisa Feltner said EDM Studio's absent engagement coordinator was a concern, saying "the person needs to be here." The committee voted unanimously to bring back BH+A and EDM Studio for a second round of interviews.

In the full story:

• Call to Order and Committee Organization
• The Search Process: Five Firms, One Night
• Abacus: Local Roots and a Decision Matrix
• BH+A: Benchmarking and Room-by-Room Detail
• EDM Studio and Lifespan Design: Four Decades of Senior Center Expertise
• ICON Architecture: Framing Values Before Spaces
• UTIL: Engagement as Equity and Design Justice
• Deliberation: Ranking the Finalists
• Procedural Steps and Outcome
• Implications and What Is Next
• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report: 2,152 words

Source: the Senior Center Building Committee meeting of September 24, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.