Shoring for restoration work at Emerson College’s Little Building
Boston – Emerson College’s Little Building, converted into a dormitory and dining hall in 1995, is now undergoing a two-year construction project. The work will replace the existing façade, renovate the dining hall and student social space, and upgrade and increase student rooms, adding 290 new student beds to the existing 750.
Marr Scaffolding Company’s Shoring Division has contracted with both Suffolk Construction and NASDI Demolition to install shoring for the removal and replacement of existing beams, columns, and walls to accommodate the new design. Daniel Marr & Son (DM&S) is furnishing the structural steel and installing 100,000sf of new steel and metal decking with over 1,000 pieces of steel erected by hand in the interior of the building.
Work for all Marr entities will continue through the summer.
There is a great deal of reinforcing work involved in repairing and strengthening the existing structure. Custom brackets were engineered in-house for shoring applications that required using pairs of 20-ft.-long beams weighing approximately 1,700 pounds to carry the weight of a 120,000-pound interior column.
Marr Shoring worked with sister companies DM&S and Marr Crane & Rigging to rig the beams in place and field weld the brackets.
Erecting steel for the 100,000sf addition at Emerson College
A major component of the work includes replacing the exterior façade, and DM&S has contracted with Beton Prefabrique (BPDL) to erect over 1,400 new ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) panels made to replicate the elaborate historic façade of the building. Some of the panels will attach to the existing structure and others to the new steel being erected.
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Named for Boston businessman and philanthropist John Mason Little, the modern Gothic-styled Little Building opened in 1917 as an office building and shopping arcade and, at 12 stories, was considered a skyscraper in Boston.
