The Boston Arts Academy

Building Statistics

Design and Functional Components

This project consists of the construction of a new 5 story arts academy located in Boston, MA. The high school’s existing building will be demolished, and a new building is to be built on the same footprint. The new and improved building will include academic classrooms, science classrooms, music rooms, visual arts rooms, fitness rooms, film screening room, SPED classrooms, administrative offices, dining room, and kitchen. As well as, a gymnasium, auditorium, band recital hall, and an outdoor terrace on the 5th floor. Each floor of the building is dedicated to a different art discipline; however, the building still manages to in cooperate common areas and classrooms within each floor:

First floor: common spaces, dining, kitchen, auditorium main entrance.

Second floor: film rooms, acting/movement rooms, black box theater, and general classrooms

Third floor: dance studios, gymnasium, fitness rooms, and biology labs.

Fourth floor: art studios, fashion design studios and chemistry labs.

Fifth floor: music rooms, recording studios, and general classrooms.

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The new BAA building contains aluminum framed windows; as well as, curtain walls to allow for natural light to enter the building. Other than that, many of the interior spaces are acoustically conditioned to respect neighboring rooms by limiting noise leakage. This consists of having sound isolation floors and ceilings within all the rooms that may produce heavy noise.

Acoustical Details

General Building Data

Name: Boston Arts Academy

Location: 174 IPSWICH ST. Boston, MA 02215

Building Occupant Name: Boston Arts Academy students and faculty

Function Type: Education/Mixed Use

Size: 154,333 sf

Number of Stories: 5

Project Team:

Owner: City of Boston, Public Facilities Department
Owner’s Project Manager: PMA Consultants - http://pmaconsultants.com/
General Contractor: TBD
CM: Lee Kennedy Co. Inc. - https://leekennedy.com/
Architects: Perkins Eastman + Wilson Butler Architects - http://www.perkinseastman.com/ | http://www.wilsonbutler.com/

Engineers:

Structural: Engineers Design Group - http://www.edginc.com/
Civil/Site: Nitsch Engineering - http://www.nitscheng.com/
Mechanical: BR+A - https://www.brplusa.com/
Electrical: BR+A - https://www.brplusa.com/
Plumbing/Fire protection: VAV International - http://www.vavint.com/
Geotech: PSI - https://www.psiusa.com/
Landscape: Warner Larson - https://www.warnerlarson.com/
FF&E: Point Line Space - https://www.point-line-space.com/

Dates of construction: TBD

Actual Project Cost: TBD

Project Delivery Method: Construction Manager at Risk

Major National Model Codes

CMR – Code of Massachusetts Regulations; Board of Building Regulations and Standards (Massachusetts):

521 CMR – Massachusetts Architectural Access Board
524 CMR – Massachusetts Board of Elevator Regulations
780 CMR – Massachusetts State Building Code
780 CMR c13 – Massachusetts Commercial Energy Code

ANSI A117.1 – Accessible and Usable Building and Facilities

ICC/IBC – International Building Code

NFPA 70 – National Electrical Code

NFPA 80 – Fire Door and Windows

NFPA 101 – Life Safety Code

NFPA 105 – Installation of Smoke Door Assemblies

Zoning

The building will be in a dense area of the city, the area sespecially during the summer time. The building faces Fenway Park, which is the official baseball stadium for the Boston Red Sox. Therefore, during baseball season the streets are closed off around the area as they flood with people attending the game. Other than that, it is located near a large public park which is home to the Fenway Garden Society. As well as, several residential buildings, restaurants, and the Yawkey commuter rail stop.

History

Not applicable for this project

Building Facade

Most of the buildings around the Boston Arts Academy are low-rise with a brick finish. Regardless that the exact exterior finishes have yet been chosen, the building’s interesting architectural features give it a unique look in comparison to its neighbors. The structure includes a curve on the south-west façade, which gives the building its distinctive shape. Also, the structure contains several curtain walls, which are sporadically placed, that are equipped with vertical aluminum sunscreens. Finally, the building includes long vertical cut-outs; as well as, a vertical sign beside its main entrance.

The new BAA building is a steel framed masonry veneered building. It contains metal composite material (MCM) wall panels; as well as, color galvanized steel channels as masonry lintels. There are aluminum curtain walls along the east and north east faces of the building, which include vertical aluminum sunscreens. The glass has the U-value 0.30 Btu/sq. ft x h x deg. F and a solar heat gain coefficient of 0.41. Other than that, the building has several different exterior wall assemblies such as:

Corrugated metal panel on 12” concrete wall
Corrugated metal panel on 8” metal framing
Metal panel on 6” and 8” metal framing
3 5/8” CMU on 8” metal framing
3 5/8” Brick on 12” concrete
3 5/8” Brick on 8” metal framing
3 5/8” Stacked stone on 12” and 16” concrete
3 5/8” stacked stone on 8” metal framing

Facade Details

Roofing

The roofing of the building includes 2-ply modified bitumen roofing; as well as, singly-ply TPO roofing.

Roofing Details

Sustainability

The owner of the building has established that the project shall achieve a minimum of LEED silver. Different sustainability features are required to achieve the necessary points to acquire the certification. A goal of this project is to satisfy all the prerequisites to attain a certified LEED-S of the USGBC and to exceed the level of energy efficiency required in the current MA base energy code by 10%.

Engineering Systems

1. Construction

The Boston Arts Academy’s construction manager is Lee Kennedy Co. Inc. The delivery method of this project is construction manager at risk. Sub-bids for trade contracts are required for glass and glazing, acoustical tiles, resilient floors, painting, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical. This project includes the demolition of the previous Boston Arts Academy and the construction of a new and improved building on the same footprint. The demolition is done within the building’s property line, and any area disturbed outside the limit of work shall be restored to its original condition. All areas that serve the premises such as driveways, parking areas, loading areas, and entrances shall always be clear and available to the owner and the owner’s employees. These areas will not be used for parking and storage of materials during construction and all debris generated during site preparation shall be disposed of offsite. Also, the contractor will dispose of two abandoned 10,000-gallon fuel oil underground storage tanks; as well as, all power supply lines. Other than that, contractors shall provide continuous mechanical drainage to control surface and underground water.

2. Structural

The Boston Arts Academy’s structural systems include its foundation, reinforced concrete, reinforced concrete masonry, structural steel, and steel deck. The structural design considers all the necessary design loads of the building.

The building’s foundation is designed based on the recommendations found within the Geotechnical Engineering Report by the Professional Service Industries, Inc. The foundations are supported by precast-prestressed piles. The bottom of all footings, pile caps, and grade beam foundations are located a minimum of four feet below finished grade for frost protection. Areas that contain reinforced concrete contain different specifications for the concrete type, such as:

Reinforced concrete exposed to the weather: Normal weight concrete with a minimum 5,000 PSI 28-day compression strength and contain an air entrainment admixture.
Reinforced concrete slabs on grade: Normal weight with a minimum compressive strength of 4,000 PSI at the end of 28 days.
Reinforced concrete slabs on steel deck: Normal weight concrete with a minimum compressive strength of 3,000 PSI at the end of 28 days.

The Boston Arts Academy incorporates structural steel which includes bolted or welded double angled beam connections. These connections are designed for a beam reaction “R” determined by the member capacity as specified by AISC. The steel decks of the building vary in depths and shall be fastened to all supporting steel members. These depths include:

1-1/2” deep deck
3” deep deck

2” and 3” deep composite deck

3. Electrical

The utility company providing power to the Boston Arts Academy is Eversource. Eversource owns a manhole close to the building’s site. The manhole is connected to the site through a 4-way concrete medium voltage ductbank. These conduits extend to an Eversource 15kV switchgear pad. This switchgear is owned by the utility company and is located at grade on the building’s site. The switchgear is connected to an Eversource pad mounted transformer through an underground medium voltage ductbank. Both the switchgear and transformer are owned by the utility company. However, the concrete pads are installed by the electrical engineer after being approved by Eversource and are built in accordance to the utility company’s standards and specifications.

After the voltages are stepped down by the utility company’s transformer they move into the building’s main switchboard located on the first floor, which proceeds to distribute power throughput the building. Furthermore, the building includes an emergency power distribution system, which will provide equipment with stand-by emergency power in the event of normal power failure. This power is provided using a diesel generator found on the roof.

4. Lighting

Since the Boston Arts Academy is a new building, all lighting fixtures incorporated within the building are LED. When producing lighting calculations, these fixtures contain a light loss factor of 0.9. The lighting design of the building is mostly functional, while incorporating some aesthetic design within public areas.

5. Mechanical

Heating shall be provided by gas-fired condensing hot water boiler. The cooling system shall be provided through direct-expansion (DX) cooling at the packaged rooftop air handling units. Also, VRF terminal devices are used and are capable of heating and cooling for rooms including: private offices, classrooms, and general academic offices. These VRF devices shall be used in classrooms where ventilation loads do not exceed the cooling loads. Outside air intakes shall be placed in areas where the distance can be minimized from exhaust outlets, vacuum systems, plumbing vents, emergency generator discharge stacks, and areas which may collect vehicular exhaust or other noxious fumes.

6. Fire Protection

A life safety electrical system is incorporated into the building. This system includes an automatic transfer switch which shift the power supply from normal to generator power when during a power outage. Fire alarm equipment and fire pumps are connected to this system. Also, mechanical fire protection is utilized within the building. Supply air systems shall be arranged in a manner to minimize penetrations of fire barriers, fire partitions, and smoke barriers that require smoke/fire dampers. Laboratory exhaust air systems are also arranged to avoid penetration of fire barriers. These systems are separately ducted to a shaft then connected to a riser. These manifold exhaust systems will continue to operate, at reduced air, in a fire alarm condition. However, manual fire fighter control shall be available at the fire command center.

7. Telecommunication

A telecommunication room (TR) shall be provided at each floor. These rooms shall act as the floor serving interconnect for backbone equipment, and floor serving distribution cabling A system of J-hooks and conduits shall be utilized for the distribution of telecommunications wiring from the TR location to the work area outlet such as the end user equipment such as voice, data, and wireless.

Fairooz AlAwami | Lighting/Electrical

Dr. Richard Mistrick + Shawn Good

Boston Arts Academy

174 IPSWICH ST. Boston, MA 02215