In early March, the 80-seat Heights Restaurant & Bar opened on the 10th floor of the Smith Campus Center at Harvard University, in the heart of Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. This is the latest addition to a “common spaces” initiative that Harvard’s former President Drew Faust launched in 2008 to create a singular area on campus where thousands of faculty, students, staff, and visitors can congregate.
Harvard now boasts 385,000 sf of dedicated community space within the H-shaped Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center. The public can access the first floor and most of the second floor of the Center, which along with the 10th floor underwent a 36-month reconstruction and renovation that was completed last September, and entailed the excavation of 975 tons of demolition debris.
This project’s community and user outreach was extensive, with 25 focus groups and a survey that received 600 responses. The University also conducted a furniture showcase in the fall of 2016, around the same time that construction began.
Harvard University's “One Harvard” concept creates a gathering place for students, faculty, staff, and the community. Image: Courtesy of Consigli Construction
These efforts helped inform the redesigns by Hopkins Architects. (Bruner/Cott & Associates was the executive architect.) Consigli Construction executed the complete gutting of the 10th floor, and selective remodeling on the two lower floors that include the Moise Y. Safra Welcome Pavilion and Plaza, says Todd McCabe, Consigli’s Vice President-Project Services, who with John Lehane, the firm’s Project Manager, spoke with BD+C last week.
The renovation recreated the building’s Arcade (where most of the restaurants are) from a dungeon-like “two stories of concrete,” says Lehane, to a more inviting space with “more glass, new programming, and a large landscape area” with three or four green walls irrigated with UV-filtered rainwater. (Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates was the landscape architect.)
He says that one of this project’s biggest challenges was restoring the building’s façade and expanding the former Holyoke Center, which required the structural demolition of a two-story annex over a parking garage and then putting a three-story building in its place. The building’s “front door” is now highlighted by a two-story curtainwall. There’s also a three-story curtainwall on the Holyoke Street side of the building.
The remodeled building includes several green walls that are irrigated by UV-filtered rainwater. Image: Consigli Construction
Outside, new plazas open onto two thoroughfares.
Lehane notes that “what often gets overlooked” in projects like these is the MEP system. Working with engineer Arup, Consigli dedicated a MEP manager to “trace out” the system in order to keep it operable, as 500 people continued to work in the Center during the renovation, and thousands more walked through it every day. (The Center houses several of the university’s departments as well as Harvard University Health Services.)
All told, there were between 20 and 25 Building Team members on this project, says McCabe, including Consigli’s VDC team, which used virtual design tools for communications and planning, especially for occupied areas within the building.
Related Stories
| Sep 13, 2010
Campus housing fosters community connection
A 600,000-sf complex on the University of Washington's Seattle campus will include four residence halls for 1,650 students and a 100-seat cafe, 8,000-sf grocery store, and conference center with 200-seat auditorium for both student and community use.
| Sep 13, 2010
Richmond living/learning complex targets LEED Silver
The 162,000-sf living/learning complex includes a residence hall with 122 units for 459 students with a study center on the ground level and communal and study spaces on each of the residential levels. The project is targeting LEED Silver.
| Sep 13, 2010
'A Model for the Entire Industry'
How a university and its Building Team forged a relationship with 'the toughest building authority in the country' to bring a replacement hospital in early and under budget.
| Sep 13, 2010
Committed to the Core
How a forward-looking city government, a growth-minded university, a developer with vision, and a determined Building Team are breathing life into downtown Phoenix.
| Aug 11, 2010
JE Dunn, Balfour Beatty among country's biggest institutional building contractors, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 50 Institutional Contractors based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Jacobs, Arup, AECOM top BD+C's ranking of the nation's 75 largest international design firms
A ranking of the Top 75 International Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Stimulus funding helps get NOAA project off the ground
The award-winning design for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) new Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) replacement laboratory saw its first sign of movement on Sept 15 with a groundbreaking ceremony held in La Jolla, Calif. The $102 million project is funded primarily by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), resulting in a rapidly advanced construction plan for the facility.
| Aug 11, 2010
JanCom Technologies expands headquarters
JanCom Technologies, Inc., an Austin, Texas-based technology, infrastructure, audio-visual, and critical power systems consulting and engineering services firm, continues to grow due to an influx of high-profile international projects. The company recently expanded to a 5,000-square-foot office space at 206 Wild Basin Road. The move represents a 2,000-square-foot increase in space to accommodate the company’s growth.
| Aug 11, 2010
Rouss & Robertson Halls
University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce
Charlottesville, Va.
Rouss Hall, a historic 24,000-sf building designed by Stanford White, served as the home of the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce from 1955 to 1975. Thirty years later, the university unveiled plans to have the business school return to the small, outdated 110-year-old facility, but this time with the addition of a 132,000-sf companion building to be named Robertson Hall.
| Aug 11, 2010
Steel Joist Institute announces 2009 Design Awards
The Steel Joist Institute is now accepting entries for its 2009 Design Awards. The winning entries will be announced in November 2009 and the company with the winning project in each category will be awarded a $2,000 scholarship in its name to a school of its choice for an engineering student.