Wenham Commission Continues Gordon College Music Center Hearing to May 11

WENHAM — April 27, 2026 — Wenham Conservation Commission continues Gordon College music center hearing, citing missing lighting documents. The commission voted unanimously Monday to continue the public hearing on Gordon College's Notice of Intent for the Adams Center for Music, a roughly 15,000-square-foot building with a 500-seat concert hall planned for 255 Grapevine Road, to its May 11 meeting. Jacob Murray of Waterfield Design Group, the project's civil engineer, said the building would increase impervious area on the campus by approximately 14,800 square feet, managed through proprietary separators and 40 underground infiltration chambers; 14 trees within the 200-foot wetland buffer would be removed and replaced with 19 native trees. Two members of HW Dark Sky, an ad hoc Hamilton-Wenham citizens group, read a formal comment letter into the record requesting all exterior lights meet International Dark Sky Association standards — including a color temperature no higher than 2,700 Kelvin — and noting that neither an illumination plan nor a lighting plan had been included in the applicant's submittal. The commission also directed the applicant to provide final stamped plans and a full construction logistics plan before May 11.