Boston – Kaplan Construction has recently wrapped up a series of projects for Boston College and Northeastern University.
Training and testing area at the O’Neill Library / photo by Ed Wonsek
Kaplan worked on two projects at Boston College’s O’Neill Library, one of the center points of the college’s campus. Over the course of three months, Kaplan completed renovations at the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE).
The two-phase project answered the school’s request for a well-located and attractive place for faculty to collaborate as well as to bring together staff members who were previously dispersed in different departments.
Waiting area at the O’Neill Library / photo by Ed Wonsek
Kaplan also renovated the main circulation desk and reconfigured the back office for increased efficiency and functionality. The interior renovations to a 5,400sf area encompassed the overhaul of classroom space and the construction of a new circulation desk and associated administrative areas, including adjustable counters for accessibility and new soffits and lighting for improved visibility. Kaplan also converted existing classrooms into six training/testing areas and a media viewing room.
Project team members include Lavallee Brensinger Architects (LBA) and BR+A Consulting Engineers.
With a goal of creating a training room within the slide library, Kaplan shuffled library partitions to reconfigure the space, repositioned the slide storage units, created shelving units, and renovated some offices. The 1,100sf slide library has desktop computers for users as well as AV equipment, projectors, and power/data for viewing slides from the collection.
In its first project for Northeastern University, Kaplan renovated an existing interior laboratory at the Egan Engineering/Science Research Center for the College of Engineering and installed new mechanicals, lighting, fire alarm, finishes, and millwork to create a new experimental laboratory. The research facility includes a grouping of labs that currently serves multiple professors and students.
The new lab will contain a 1,300-gallon acrylic water tank for experiments and an adjacent space with workstations where graduate students can plan and review experiments. In order to minimize disruptions, the lab space has sound-proofing features in the walls, ceiling, and doors. During construction, the neighboring labs were operational, so Kaplan and its subcontractors coordinated work closely with Northeastern faculty and staff to reduce interruptions to ongoing experiments.
