News
LOOK LIKE LOUIS
February 1, 2011
| Notice anything different about Brandeis? You're probably looking at the first projects of Buro Happold?s Boston office: the Shapiro Science Center ('09) and the Mandel Center for Humanities (fall '10). Now, the three-year-old BH office is doing engineering work for the new Colby College Art Museum and the $114M Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum makeover. |
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| We snapped Stratton Newbert, a structural engineer who manages BH?s Fort Point office. He says the UK-based practice decided to open up shop here because Bostonians prefer to work with other locals who know the ropes. ?We're provincial,? says Stratton, himself a Bostonian. If you're in Newburyport, he told us, ?down South? is Danvers. |
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| David MacNeil, who manages the MEP department in the Boston office, is on the front lines for Colby College?s 27k SF Museum of Art created by LA-based Frederick Fisher and Partners. Still in design, 18 months of construction is scheduled to start in the summer. (Remember that season?) David says one challengehas been to fashion a very energy efficient mechanical system for the all-glass, jewel box-style structure. Since glass is not a great insulator, BH will install an energy recovery system and chilled beams in the building, which will go for LEED Silver. It'll also set up a Class-A environmental control system so the art won't be damaged by changes in temperature and humidity. (Translation: Dali's "Melting Clocks" were like that already.) |
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| Pat Hart, a plumbing engineer, and Steve Adeff, an electrical engineer, are on the BH team managing the engineering work for the revamp of the Gardner Museum, a renovation of the historic villa and 70k SF addition. Stratton says the project is due for completion in early ?12 and will have a geothermal system that heats and cools by using the ground. The addition includes an impressive music hall. It's built on a grand scale but with the seating close to the stage, will offer an intimate audience experience. Unfortunately, he can't control all temps: He says he's regretting not buying a snow blower since shoveling is giving him a ?dead right arm.? With a birthday soon, he hopes his wife will take pity on him. |
