Simpson Gumpertz & Heger and EYP Architecture and Engineering awarded by ACEC/MA

Cambridge, MA The American Council of Engineering Companies of Massachusetts (ACEC/MA) has named Simpson Gumpertz & Heger and EYP Architecture and Engineering as a winner of its 2017 Silver Engineering Excellence Award for work on the MIT Kresge Auditorium and Chapel.

The 2017 Engineering Excellence Awards were announced at the recent ACEC/MA Engineering Excellence and Awards Gala with emcees Carol Gladstone, Commissioner of the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance and Commissioner Leo Roy of the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Simpson Gumpertz & Heger with offices throughout the country, including Boston, was retained by EYP Architecture & Engineering to provide repairs to the 62-year-old chapel and served as structural engineer and building enclosure consultant.

Designed by Eero Saarinen and dedicated in 1955, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) chapel and Kresge Auditorium are iconic mid-century modernist buildings. To preserve their Saarinen design while addressing sixty years of weathering and deterioration, MIT renovated both structures. Repairs to the chapel, a nondenominational space for worship and gathering, included mechanical upgrades, masonry repairs, curtain wall refurbishment, roof replacement, moat replacement, skylight refurbishment and fall protection. The Kresge Auditorium, a venue for events, classes, and performances, received mechanical upgrades, concrete and steel repairs, partial replacement of copper roofing and curtain wall rehabilitation including glazing upgrade.

“The winning projects exemplify ingenuity and professionalism and represent the breadth of engineering’s contribution to our everyday lives,” said ACEC/MA president Mark Bartlett PE, senior associate at Stantec, Inc. “They are outstanding examples of how engineers connect communities, provide safe and reliable water and energy, and make our buildings safe and efficient. The professional engineers and their colleagues at our member firms are dedicated to working on quality infrastructure, which wouldn’t otherwise exist. These outstanding projects are but a few examples of the quality work designed by Massachusetts engineering firms.”