Pare project wins bronze ACEC/MA engineering excellence award

Boston, MA According to Pare Corp., the 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 Mass. (ACEC/MA).

Pare Corp. completed the design and construction-phase services related to site/civil, traffic, and environmental permitting for the new $130 million, 190,000 s/f University Hall.  The new academic building includes more than 25 general-use classrooms, four 150–200-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.  Wilson Architects designed the building and Gilbane Building Company served as the project’s construction manager. 

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.   At each stage of the University Hall project, Pare and the design team had to evaluate the interface with an ongoing campus-wide Utility Corridor and Roadway Relocation (UCRR) project and quickly respond to the dynamic nature of its evolving design.

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. 

The awards ceremony was held at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge.  Accepting the award were Andrew Chagnon, Pare’s project manager, and Andrew Weiss, campus planner for UMass Boston.

Established in 1970, Pare Corp. provides comprehensive planning, engineering, permitting and construction-phase services throughout the Eastern United States in such fields as site/civil, highways, bridges, waterfront/marine, dams, water/wastewater, geotechnical, structural, traffic, municipal, and environmental engineering.

Shown (from left) are: Andrew Chagnon, P.E. (Pare Corp. vice president), Cynthia Carleo, P.E. (ACEC/MA awards committee co-chair), Andrew Weiss (UMass Boston campus planner), Kurt Jelinek, P.E. (ACEC/MA awards committee co-chair), and Mark Bartlett, P.E. (ACEC/MA president).