Topping off ceremony commemorates new $61 million MassArt facility guaranteeing housing to all first- and second-year students

BOSTON, MA, May 19, 2011 – Suffolk Construction, one of the leading privately held construction management firms in the country, recently celebrated the topping off of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design residence hall project on Huntington Avenue in Boston. The project team joined university officials to recognize the placing of the final steel beam on the $61 million, 21-story MassArt facility, which will add 493 beds and 145,000 square feet of dormitory space to the school campus. The project is on schedule to be completed in May 2012.

The new residence hall will feature a sustainable design strategy to achieve LEED certification, demonstrating Suffolk and MassArt’s continuing commitment to leadership in green building and development. The dormitory will also include a new health center that will serve students of MassArt, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and Wentworth Institute of Technology.

The Massachusetts State College Building Authority (MSCBA) is the project developer for the new MassArt residence hall, and ADD Inc is the architect. This MassArt project is the first high-rise residence hall project for the MSCBA.

Attendees at the topping off ceremony included MassArt President Kay Sloan; MassArt Board of Trustees Chair Richard Shea; MassArt Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Finance Kurt Steinberg; Wentworth Institute of Technology President Zorica Pantić; Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences President Charles Monahan, Jr.; MSCBA Chairman James Morris; MSCBA Executive Director Edward Adelman; Suffolk Chief Operating Officer of the Northeast Division Angus Leary; Suffolk Director of Field Operations Jim Grossman; and ADD Inc Principal B.K. Boley, AIA, LEED AP.

The residence hall will be a critical element to the multi-stage development of the MassArt campus. Once completed, the building will allow the college to guarantee housing to all first- and second-year students and will provide housing to 38 percent of the entire student body on campus, a marked increase from the current 22 percent. The new residence hall is one of four capital projects scheduled at MassArt over the next several years, which include a new media center, campus center, and renovated galleries.