Renovated campus center at Cummings school wins design award

    The newly renovated Agnes Varis Campus Center at Tufts' Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine campus in Grafton was in December awarded the Silver Hammer Award in recognition of its design excellence.
    The Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce gives yearly Silver Hammer Awards to recognize projects that contribute significantly to the area's aesthetic quality or enhance the region's historical sites.
    "The Silver Hammer Award signifies the best institutional historic renovation within the Worcester region," Jean Poteete, senior campus planner for the Cummings School, said.
    The Cummings School campus center was one of three construction and rehabilitation projects awarded the prize at the chamber's 134th annual meeting, held on Dec. 8.
    Agnes Varis (C '03), a trustee and member of the Board of Overseers at the Cummings School, donated $4 million to the renovation of the campus center, which in total cost $10 million.
    The renovation began in the summer of 2007 and ended in the fall of 2008 and had been delayed for many years due to insufficient funding, according to Director of Construction Management Mitch Bodnarchuk.
    Bowdoin Construction Corporation undertook the building's construction, and the architectural firm Finegold Alexander and Associates drew up the building's design.
    The selection of the architects for the renovation took into consideration their understanding of the project's desired outcome, according to Bodnarchuk.
    "The architects of the renovation were chosen by their experience with the renovation of older buildings that coincided with the campus theme," he said.
    The original building, built in 1913, served as a dormitory for male nurses working at the Grafton State Hospital. Tufts in 1978 purchased the hospital's land from the state to establish the Cummings School.
    The new campus center will provide the Cummings School community with a much-needed space for both scholastic and non-scholastic activities, creating a venue that facilitates community unity, according to Tom Keppeler, associate director of public relations for the Cummings School.
    "[It is a] cohesive space for the campus, as we never had one place for students to eat, study and relax," he said.
    The renovation involved the replacement of all of the windows in the campus center and the restoration of the slate roof. The interior of the building was entirely redone, along with the addition of a new 1,000-square-foot fitness room, a cafeteria, two 1,000-square-foot lounges, a bookstore, 13 faculty offices and an auditorium. The two lounges include a "loud" lounge equipped with billiards and foosball tables and a "quiet" study lounge with a fireplace.
    The auditorium in the campus center is the third on the Grafton campus. The 173-seat auditorium is open to the public and has already been used by members of the Tufts Department of Music to showcase a benefit concert for relief efforts in Haiti.
    The new fitness center — the first on the Grafton campus — was added partially thanks to funding from the Cummings Marathon Challenge team, Team Jumbo West.
    Additionally, as part of the preservation of the historical site, which is today listed on the Massachusetts Register of Historic Places, a new two-story wing containing a 7,200-square-foot lecture hall was added using the original structure's materials.
    Beyond uniting the student community, the campus center also brings faculty and students together, as it houses private offices for Cummings School faculty.
    The other recipients of the Silver Hammer Award were the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts and the Rainbow Child Development Center at 10 Edward Street.
    Chris Candiello, construction projects manager in the Tufts Operations Division, won a 2009 Extra Mile Award, one of the Tufts Distinction Awards, in part for his work on the Grafton construction project.