The groundbreaking ceremony was well attended last week for Plains Elementary School, a new public elementary school in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Dodson & Flinker collaborated with Jones Whitsett Architects on the school design. Among other features, the nature/adventure play area at the new school will include new paths through a stand of preserved pine trees, a rainwater cistern and runnel operable by schoolteachers, a raingarden, an embankment slide, a stump scramble, and a labrynth. Dodson & Flinker will be working closely with the landscape and site contractors over the next year on the landscape. The school is scheduled to open in fall of 2015.