Imagine this: a five-story sandstone-and-brick dormitory with two wings, connected by a walkway to both Professors Row and Talbot Avenue.
Now imagine this: an "Arts Corner" across from the dorm that includes an expansive new music building that's connected to a renovated Aidekman Arts Center, linked in turn to the green fields of the athletic complex by another pathway.
Soon, both of these scenarios will be a reality. Construction on the dormitory, Sophia Gordon Hall, and the new music building is ongoing - and eventually, the path that connects Sophia Gordon to Professors Row will then continue across Talbot, connecting upper campus to the new Arts Corner.
When the architects at William Rawn Associates designed the project, this sense of "interconnectedness" between the University's upper campus and lower campus was a central idea. And once completed, the new construction could help to geographically unite a campus that is largely considered to be separated into two distinct parts - "uphill" and "downhill."
The Sophia Gordon site is teeming with swinging beams, a maze of newly laid brick and metal planks, and the constant noise of drilling, hammering and constructing.
While there, it is hard to imagine that this structure will be ready at the beginning of the next academic year, complete with brand-new suites, state-of-the-art facilities and vast views of the Boston skyline.
But the construction of Sophia Gordon Hall has come a long way since April, when the building began. From the start of the fall semester - when all there was to see was a skeleton of a structure - the building has been developed into a 60,000-square-foot, five-story dormitory. It's the first all-upperclassmen dorm at Tufts, and it will open in Sept. 2006.
Sophia Gordon Hall will be composed of two wings, East and West, and will contain a total of 30 suites and 126 beds. The typical suite will have four bedrooms, as well as a kitchen, living room and bath.
An indoor connector with mailboxes and laundry room joins the two wings on the first-floor level, and a pedestrian pathway bisecting the two wings will connect Talbot Avenue with Professors Row and the uphill campus.
As he walks into the dorm's West wing, Project Manager Brian Kennedy, who works for Linbeck - the construction management company in charge of implementing the new buildings - explains that students will be able to walk underground to get from the West to the East wing, allowing refuge from the cold and snow that typifies a Medford winter.
On the first floor, there is a large laundry room and common room. As you walk upstairs, you can imagine the apartment-style suites in which juniors and seniors will be able to live on-campus without having to share a dorm room.
"Gordon Hall, with its suites and central community room for concerts and movies, will offer 'apartment-style' living far more attractive than an apartment two or three blocks off campus," architect Randy Wilmot said.
Giving a tour of the suites, Kennedy explains where each room will be located. "This is a suite: Walk through here, where there will be a door. And this is a main hallway."
"You just came off the stairs, and you'll walk through this door and this will bring you to the apartment-style common kitchen," he demonstrates. "Countertops will be here, a sink, the refrigerator is over there, and here are the kitchen cabinets."
You walk a little further, and there is what Kennedy said will be "a living room looking out towards the new music building with a view of the Boston skyline."
"That view gets much better when you go one floor up," he says, describing the large windows that look out onto Talbot Avenue.
An appealing aspect of the new dorm for those students who have been living with a roommate for two years? Having their own bedroom. And Sophia Gordon Hall has been designed to make that possible.
There will be four bedrooms to a suite, and "each person will have their own bedroom. There will be a common bathroom with two sinks, a toilet, and a shower, and that's common for everyone's use," Kennedy explains.
"This is pretty typical to each suite: That's how floors one through four are set up," he says. "The fifth floor is set up a little differently; that has the best suite in the house."
After climbing up to the fifth floor, Kennedy points out the different design of this suite. "When you come into this suite, you can see that they are set up like duplexes," he says. "There's a large living area with one bedroom located [to the left, and one to the right]. There's a bathroom and shower area for this floor."
"But there is a second set of stairs within the suite," he adds. "You can walk up another flight and there are four more bedrooms on that floor."
When standing on the top floor and looking out the window, it's a million-dollar view that rivals the sight from the Tisch Library roof.
"There are large windows on the wall facing towards Aidekman auditorium - this is the most amazing sight," an enthused Kennedy says. "You can see the Hancock tower, the Prudential Center, and all of the Boston skyline."
The most impressive part of the new buildings may be the East wing "multi-purpose assembly room," which seats 150 people and will be a social center for the dorm and a campus venue for debates, parties or musical performances. There will also "be a large screen with a projector and motorized shades for viewing movies," Kennedy says.
"It's going to be a space people enjoy being in," Wilmot adds.
Kennedy explains that "the room has [multiple] uses. It also has a nice wooden floor, and a balcony with a glass rail. It can be used for many different things, not just for people in the dorm."
The accessibility of the dorm was also a priority for the University and the architects. "As you come down there are paths," Kennedy says. "One will be handicapped-accessible, and then there will be a large plaza where there will be a sitting deck. Then, there's a large set of exterior stairs that will walk down to street level, and for handicapped people, there is an elevator inside the dorm that goes down to street level."
"The building is completely handicapped accessible from Professors Row to Talbot Ave," he adds.
From the spot where the sitting deck will be, there is a clear view of the new music center, which is not quite as far along in its construction and will be finished in Dec. 2006, in time for the Spring 2007 semester.
The music building site includes 45,000 square feet of construction and 10,000 square feet of renovation.
"It is made up of a 300 person seating recital hall, administrative offices, classrooms and practice rooms," Kennedy explains. "The existing Cohen basement will be renovated as a library and practice rooms. That is going to be completed and renovated, including demolition and new water systems, by Sept. 2006."
The music building had to be specially designed, taking into acoustics into account. "There's a lot of acoustical design incorporated - for example, there are several prefabricated rooms that they are going to bring in that are very quiet for the louder instruments," Kennedy says. "The practice rooms and teaching studios and all the rooms on the lower level of Cohen include special construction of the walls so they are nice and quiet."
The music building will also contain a large lobby off of the concert space, which will be used for entertaining during intermissions.
The Arts Corner will be connected to the athletics complex. "The flat level in front of the music building connects to a set of stairs that bring you down to the football field and track," Kennedy says. "The idea was to design it so that you can cut through and connect upper campus to lower campus."
The new dorm will be Tufts' first "green" building - that is, its first building constructed according to U.S. Green Building Council LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) voluntary standards. These parameters were developed in order to guide environmentally-friendly construction, and to encourage the use of energy-efficient technology and recycled and renewable construction materials.
According to Associate Professor Chris Swan, who teaches a course called "Engineering and the Construction Process" that studies the actual Tufts construction site, "you get certain points for doing environmentally conscious construction, and you get a certification when you [have enough points]. This will be Tufts first LEED accredited building."
And it's also the first LEED-accredited dorm in America. "Tufts is building the first dorm that will ever be LEED certified in the United States," Kennedy said.
There are many different aspects of LEED certification. "Where the materials come from and how you obtained them...all that goes into the LEED certification process," Swan said. For example, steel used to build Sophia Gordon Hall is more than 90 percent recycled.
According to Linbeck Project Manager Betsy Davis, Linbeck is "concentrating on several different items."
"Construction waste management is a big one," Davis explained. "We have contracted with a waste management firm that recycles as much of the construction waste as possible. They do this through the use of material specific dumpsters - steel, concrete, masonry, and eventually drywall - which will be removed from site and recycled 100 percent."
"In the design, the architects took into account these green components, and created things like solar panels, which use solar heat more efficiently," Kennedy said.
A $500,000 grant from the Massachusetts Energy Trust challenged Tufts to incorporate renewable-energy technology creatively in the project. These solar thermal panels are thought to reduce the energy needed to produce hot water by 30 percent and generate a small amount of electricity.
"Solar photovoltaic panels line some of the exterior of Sophia Gordon Hall - that's energy reduction, so that gets you points in the LEED accreditation process," Swan said. These photovoltaic panels will resemble glass awnings and will offer shade, as well as convert energy from sunlight.
Additionally, there is a storm water management plan in place on the site to control runoff and reduce the effects of erosion and sedimentation on the storm sewer system.
"We are using silt traps, hay bales and silt fencing to achieve this goal, and paying special attention to the maintenance of these erosion controls," Davis said.
Air quality is another issue during construction: "We are trying to manage pre-occupancy to optimize the air quality and minimize the negative impacts of air quality problems on the health and well-being of both the construction workers and the building occupants," Davis said.
"We do this by protecting the ductwork- through wrapping during storage and during installation at the end of each day - to prevent contaminants from ever entering the air handling systems of the building," she said. "We are protecting all absorptive-finish materials from moisture damage to prevent the possibility of mold developing. We also undertake a complete system flush-out just prior to occupancy to minimize the contaminants in the system."
LEED guidelines encourage the use of recyclable and renewable materials to minimize the amount of waste sent to landfills, and limit the trucking of construction materials to a radius of 500 miles, to reduce fuel emissions.
"They're also using certain types of flooring, using recycled materials, and using regionally available materials because there is an environmental expense of having something shipped," Swan said.
"We tried to optimize the recycled content of the materials we were purchasing, and paid special attention to the location of the vendors to try to get a majority of materials within a 500-mile radius of the site," Davis said. "This minimizes the impact of transportation and shipping on the environment."
"For Tufts, this building is a milestone, a first step toward a commitment to sustainable design," Wilmot said.
