Receiving the award from the ACEC-MA (l-r) Andrew Chagnon, Pare VP; Cynthia Carleo, ACEC/MA awards committee co-chair; Andrew Weiss, UMass Boston campus planner; Kurt Jelinek, ACEC/MA awards committee co-chair; Mark Bartlett, ACEC/MA president / Frank Monkiewicz Photography.
Boston – University Hall on the Boston Campus of the University of Massachusetts was awarded a Bronze Engineering Excellence Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Massachusetts (ACEC/MA).
Pare Corporation completed the design and construction-phase services related to site/civil, traffic, and environmental permitting for the new $130 million, 190,000sf University Hall.
Wilson Architects designed the building, and Gilbane Building Company served as the project’s construction manager.
The new academic building includes more than 25 general-use classrooms, four 150- to 200-seat halls, a 500-seat auditorium, a 150-seat recital hall, a black-box theater, special studios and laboratory spaces for the Art and Chemistry Departments, café, student lounges, and faculty and staff offices.
University Hall was designed to achieve LEED Silver certification, but is currently tracking LEED Gold through innovative sustainable features in the building and site design.
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Pare performed the traffic circulation analyses to evaluate pedestrian safety, geotechnical consultation and construction support services, site/civil design, environmental permitting through the Boston Conservation Commission, and LEED documentation services.
Site design presented several challenges which led to its unique design. Partway through schematic design the project site was moved when it was determined that the initial site conflicted with future campus work. The design team was required to evaluate the new site and accelerate design to stay on schedule.
Prior to completion of University Hall, a building connection was also proposed between University Hall and the Campus Center. The design of this connection was made more complicated by the interface of two buildings of different finished floor elevation and the potential for different building settlement. The area also abuts a bus drop-off zone.
Pare was able to work with members of the design teams to bring all of these pieces together in a successful design.
