Johnson Roberts Associates

06/15/2026

The residents of Freetown, MA have voted to proceed with our project to design and construct a new Council on Aging and Library Community Building! We are thrilled to create another beautiful library and senior center — one that the Freetown community can enjoy for many years. This is a rendering of our design.

06/12/2026

We've been very busy designing, renovating, restoring, expanding, and doing feasibility studies/master plans for libraries.
In the past 30 years we've worked on 100+ of them (video to come)! They've become cultural hubs for communities and now serve many functions beyond lending books, like providing spaces for meetings, makerspaces, and offering a wide variety of useful things to borrow such as laptops, gardening tools, and much more.

These are some of the renderings and plans currently on our conference room wall.

06/08/2026

Lots of work goes into getting a building certified LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, recognizes buildings and communities that meet specific standards for sustainable design and energy efficiency, awarded based on a point system across various categories).

These illustrations were created by our designer Bojana. They demonstrate Indoor Environmental Quality for the Reuben Hoar Library in Littleton, MA—to show how people who are using spaces have quality views. This project is now LEED Certified.

05/29/2026

Our Marketing Manager Will recently revisited the beautiful Stevens-Coolidge House & Gardens in North Andover, MA. Helen Stevens Coolidge inherited Ashdale Farm in 1914. Helen and her husband, US diplomat John Gardner Coolidge (a descendent of Thomas Jefferson and a nephew to Isabella Stewart Gardner), made the property their summer home. Noted preservation architect Joseph Everett Chandler was commissioned to renovate the house and gardens, and over the course of almost 50 years, the Coolidges transformed the property into a neo-Georgian Colonial Revival estate. If you are ever in the area it is definitely worth visiting, and it's free.

05/08/2026

05/01/2026

Here's an article on MassLive about funding being approved for us to build a new East Springfield Branch Library (which we recently completed a study for): https://www.masslive.com/opinion/2026/04/a-new-lease-on-life-for-library-hub-in-east-springfield-the-republican-editorials.html

"The initial idea was to expand the current building, but city and neighborhood leaders decided that a modern library that gets used as much as the one in East Springfield needed more space. The current plan is to spend $12.4 million to raze the 94-year-old branch and build a new one three times as large."

We are thrilled to create a beautiful new, energy-efficient library that will become a central hub of the East Springfield community.

East Springfield community leaders understood the sustained effort it would take to rebuild the branch.

04/17/2026

Here are some more photos of the Town Hall and School Administration Building we recently completed for the town of Wilmington, MA.

04/10/2026

JRA designers Ruth and Chris also attended the NESEA BuildingEnergy Boston 2026 conference at the Westin Boston Seaport District — where they learned new strategies for planning, discussing and implementing sustainable design techniques and technology.

Ruth's favorite presentation was “Spinach and Sustainability.” It focused on how to talk about sustainability without actually using the word—making the message more engaging and accessible (like selling a healthy green smoothie without highlighting the spinach). She also enjoyed playing a game called “Cards Against Sustainability” to practice this approach..

03/27/2026

We are dedicated to sustainable design, and one of the ways we keep up with the latest breakthroughs and technology is to attend the yearly NESEA (Northeast Sustainable Energy Association) conference. We joined NESEA in 2023 and have learned a lot through our membership.

On March 23 & 24 some of JRA’s designers attended the NESEA BuildingEnergy Boston 2026 conference at the Westin Boston Seaport District.

Some of the informative sessions they attended included:
• Decarbonization and Constructing All-electric Buildings
• Breaking Thermal Bridges
• Energy Modeling
• Passive House Design
• Geothermal Heating and Cooling

As members of the United States Green Building Council and participants in the AIA 2030 Challenge, our designers came away with many fresh ideas to further our energy-efficient design goals. Thanks NESEA!