Boston's Macallen Building Recipient of AIA's 2010 Institute of Honor Awards
The project achieved USGBC LEED gold certification, making it the first multi-unit housing structure in the city to receive such a distinction.
WALTHAM, Mass. - July 27, 2010 - The American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently named Boston's Macallen Building a 2010 recipient of AIA's Institute of Honor Awards for Architecture. National engineering firm Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. (SGH) served as the design structural engineer for office dA, and architecture and design firm; the engineer of record for design firm Burt Hill Inc.; and was a consultant for the design, detailing, testing, and construction administration of the building facades.
The building is the first multi-unit housing in Boston to achieve gold certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). It contains three levels of parking; 24,000 sq ft of elevated, accessible green space; and a 20,000 sq ft green roof with 17 degree sloping profile (rising 66 ft over 250 ft horizontal). The residential portion of the building is a 270,000 sq ft steel-framed structure between six and eleven stories tall. The 120,000 sq ft garage is a cast-in-place reinforced concrete flat plate with shear walls below the residential structure.
Highlights of SGH's participation include:
- Design of steel staggered-truss system for the residential level that provides interior column-free modules of 72 ft x 64 ft.
- Reducing the need for column transfers at the parking level drive lanes through the use of the truss system.
- Providing the owner, architect, and construction manager with a comparative floor plan matrix detailing structural depths, ceiling heights, steel tonnage, and beam/girder spacing for cost/benefit analysis during the "value engineering" phase. The chosen system provided a ceiling height of 10 ft 6 in fit within an 11 ft floor-to-floor height.
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Media Contact: Franceen Shaughnessy, Corporate Marketing Specialist, fashaughnessy@sgh.com, (781) 907-9114
About Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc.
Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. (SGH) is a national engineering firm that designs, investigates, and rehabilitates structures and building enclosures. Our award-winning work encompasses building, transportation, water/wastewater, nuclear, and science/defense projects throughout the United States and in more than 30 other countries.
SGH has offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.sgh.com.