Brighton, MA – Boston College has achieved LEED for Homes Platinum with the Blessed Peter Jesuit Community project.
In 2008, the Weston Jesuit School of Theology merged with Boston College to form the new School for Theology and Ministry. As part of that merger, 72 priests and brothers were to relocate from 10 houses outside Harvard Square to the Brighton Campus; the result of that relocation is the Blessed Peter Faber campus. This blend of residential, worship, pastoral and community programming sits on five acres of former Archdiocese of Boston land on the eastern edge of the existing BC campus.
The project consists of a complex of five new buildings totaling about 50,000gsf. Four of the buildings house 72 Jesuits and guests; the fifth building serves as common gathering for group dining, worship and administrative functions.
The Houses, as the Jesuits call them, are clustered around a central gathering lawn, with the community chapel gently turned to face the residential buildings. The scale of the buildings modulates between adjacent residential, institutional and multifamily neighbors.
All five buildings are panelized wood frame construction with slab on grade. Building exterior finishes include cementitious cladding, fiberglass windows, and high quality asphalt roof shingles. The buildings are two and one-half stories above grade with pitched roofs and occupied attics.
The project exceeds all state and national ADAAG and energy efficiency requirements.
Xavier House is pending Silver LEED-NC certification, and the other four Houses are certified Platinum LEED for Homes certification.
The project team included LDa Architects LLP; general contractor Lee Kennedy Co. Inc.; MEP, FP, IT Engineering Rist-Frost-Shumway Engineering PC; Structural Engineering Foley Buhl Roberts & Associates Inc.; Civil engineering VHB Engineering; Landscape Design Halvorson Design Partnership and LEED for Homes Provider Steven Winter Associates, Inc.