Suffolk Construction celebrated the topping off of the Dartmouth College Visual Arts Center. Suffolk is managing construction of the $32 million, 106,000 s/f framed structure that will house the college's studio arts, film, and TV studies programs. The 4-story facility will feature teaching and production studios, classrooms, exhibition space, a screening room, an auditorium theater, and faculty and administrative offices. In addition to the new visual arts center, the firm is providing construction management services for a new $3.7 million, 3,200 s/f chilled water building with two 500-ton chillers.
The topping off ceremony recognized the placing of the final steel beam on the Dartmouth College project, which has been designed to achieve a LEED Gold certification. To celebrate this key construction milestone, Suffolk vice president of education for the northeast Frank Craemer and senior project manager Timothy Harris were joined by Dartmouth College provost Carol Folt, vice president of campus planning and facilities Linda Snyder, and director of project management Matthew Purcell.
The architect for the visual arts center is Machado and Silvetti Associates of Boston, while the chilled water facility is designed by RMF Engineering, Inc. of Baltimore. The chilled water facility will be completed next month and the visual arts center will be completed in April 2012.