Suffolk University / Photo by NBBJ Boston
Boston – As administrators at Suffolk University worked through the process of shifting their campus from its original Beacon Hill base to Boston’s downtown area, they wanted to do more than provide a basic learning facility. Their goal was to create a flagship academic building with state-of-the-art classrooms and science labs. To project that image, designers chose architectural precast concrete panels with four textures to create a moving, three-dimensional effect across the building’s façade.
The facility originally was designed prior to the Great Recession with a high-tech appearance combining aluminum panels and curtain wall, explains Will Voulgaris, principal at NBBJ, the architect of record. Once the economy dropped, so did the project’s budget. “We needed a more economical solution that still met the university’s design goals,” he says. “Precast concrete’s material costs were lower, as were its construction costs.”
About three-quarters of the facing consists of precast concrete panels, with the rest glass curtainwall, but the percentage varies by façade. Designers created panels with a geometric pattern of four triangles across the panel’s face, meeting with the points at the center. Each features smooth faces or reveals along with slightly varying depths. The panels average a 6-inch thickness, with the slopes adding or subtracting 1 inch to create a 2-inch difference between some.
A key part of that savings came from being able to erect the project through Boston’s winter months. The panels were erected on the second shift, allowing them to use the same crane as was used during the day to move other materials. Suffolk Construction, the general contractor, handled the erection logistics.
“The project is located in the middle of the city, so it was a tight, urban space,” Voulgaris says. “The erectors did a great job of coordinating the arrival of panels and the erection, so it was a smooth process.” Precast Specialties Corp., which fabricated the panels, is located only about 20 minutes away, which facilitated the logistics of deliveries.
“We are really pleased with the final look; the panels give a richness to the skin that we couldn’t have accomplished any other way,” Voulgaris says.
THE TEAM
Owner: Suffolk University, Boston
Designer: NBBJ, Boston
Structural engineer: Lemessurier Inc., Boston
Contractor: Suffolk Construction Co., Boston
Precaster: Precast Specialties Corp., Abington, Mass.
