GBS ’18 Sneak Peek

As we approach our Green Building Showcase on the 25th, we will be releasing a series of project spotlights that will be shown at the event! Check out two from our friends at HMFH, and Goody Clancy.

Don’t forget to buy a ticket or register your board for the event!

Goody Clancy: LEED Gold-certified Integrated Sciences Complex

The 225,000 GSF, LEED Gold-certified Integrated Sciences Complex brings together all university departments involved in laboratory research in a dynamic, new environment for teaching and research. It raises the bar for the design of a sustainable laboratory, and sets a new precedent at UMass Boston for integrating architecture and landscape. The existing circa-1974 campus buildings are elevated on a concrete parking podium, separated from both the natural ground-plane and the water’s edge. By contrast, the ISC embraces its waterfront site and restores a former brownfield (the entire campus is built on a former landfill) to a natural harbor island habitat. Two plazas on either side of the building’s atrium connect activity indoors and out. An outdoor amphitheater allows teaching to occur out in the landscape adjacent to the physics labs, while a Science Walk now leads from the Boston Harborwalk at the water’s edge through the project site to the campus plaza. A meadow and constructed sand dunes deploy indigenous plant species requiring little or no irrigation. These site elements become educational opportunities, as the pedestrian pathways in the meadow form a Botanical Walk with plaques highlighting the geology and botany of the site.

HMFH: Emergency Housing, Cambridge MA

During the late 19th century, a stately two-family home was erected at 859 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. The handsome building was subsequently converted into offices and, unfortunately, stripped of its period detail. Things began to look up again when the City of Cambridge purchased the property and engaged HMFH Architects to restore the dilapidated building and convert it into emergency housing for up to 30 occupants. As part of this conversion, the building systems and exterior envelope were completely rebuilt to meet the City’s new guidelines for net-zero construction, and the architects worked with the Historical Commission to recreate the original exterior detailing and materials as closely as possible.