Boston – MDS/Miller Dyer Spears announced that the Kennedy Campus Center renovation at Massachusetts College of Art and Design has been awarded LEED Gold-CI Certification.
MDS worked in collaboration with the Mass. State College Building Authority (MSCBA) and the Mass. Division of Capital Asset Management (DCAM) in order to transform the outdated student center into an inviting hub of campus activity, and to open it to the larger public and multiple institutions in the LMA.
This project was the renovation and expansion of its Kennedy Campus Center on Huntington Ave., with a scope that included an expanded dining hall, servery, new café, art store, bookstore, student art gallery, student organization facilities, Student Development offices, Career Services, and Health and Counseling department. All completed while the college remained operational.
The addition provides a sense of connection between internal and external environments, bringing light and energy into the dining hall and student development offices and through to the renovated basement, while revealing college activities and enticing others into the building.
The team worked to keep 51% of the existing interior elements, supplemented with recycled materials including gypsum wall board, acoustical ceiling tiles, large-format porcelain tile and glass wall tile. Reclaimed, rapidly renewable and formaldehyde free materials like sorghum straw panel board and recycled paper countertops were used.
