BOSTON, MA – Harvard Business School celebrated the newly renovated Gallatin Hall the old-fashioned way – with an all-night party. As the HBS Bulletin notes, what better way to “road test” a dorm than to invite 73 friends over to sleep in its rooms and test its light switches, windows, and shower heads?

The gut renovation that stripped Gallatin down to its brick walls and concrete slabs transformed the McKim Mead and White building’s warren-like accommodations into the envy of the campus. Gallatin Hall is now ADA compliant, with universal access through a newly restored courtyard, teak rocking chairs and benches lining its elegant brick terrace. A glass-paneled second-floor footbridge ...[more]

NORTHBORO, MA – Saint-Gobain today broke ground on a new facility to expand the French company’s Research and Development Center in central Massachusetts. Company representatives and state and local officials were among those participating in the ceremony.

Shepley Bulfinch designed the 61,000 s.f. building to promote collaboration among research teams and to encourage innovation and creativity. It is being built using Saint-Gobain building products, including window glass, ceilings, wallboard, insulation, roofing and foundation products.The building is targeting LEED Silver certification from the US Green Building Council.

The Northboro site is the largest of Saint-Gobain’s worldwide research centers. Paris-based Saint-Gobain is the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of building materials, ...[more]

ELGIN, IL – The innovative geothermal system at Sherman Hospital, now under construction in Elgin, Illinois, is drawing national and regional press attention this month.

The operational and economic value of the geothermal system, as well as the technology behind it, are discussed in July’s Healthcare Design feature, “Running Hot and Cold”, by Shepley Bulfinch Principal Jonathan Gyory. Shorter pieces have run in the Chicago Tribune and other regional press.

The project is the world’s largest geothermal hospital project currently under construction. The 154-acre site includes a 15-acre manmade lake with a geothermal “net” at the bottom. Installation of the geothermal system, which carried a first-cost price tag of $4.5 million when ...[more]

NEW YORK, NY – Engineering News-Record (ENR) Magazine released its first Top Green Design Firms list, ranking Shepley Bulfinch at #59. The rankings are based on design firms’ 2007 revenues from projects that were registered and are actively seeking certification from the US Green Building Council (USGBC) and other major third-party environmental standards organizations.

The firm’s portfolio includes a wide range of sustainable projects, including those receiving LEED certification. The Duke Library at Furman University received LEED Gold certification earlier this year, and the firm’s renovation of Gallatin Hall at Harvard Business School, scheduled to be completed later this summer, is on track for LEED Gold certification.

Sustainable design is a ...[more]

GREENVILLE, SC – James Buchanan Duke Library at Furman University has been awarded LEED NC 2.0 Gold certification by the US Green Building Council for its 48,000 sf addition.

Located at the heart of the Furman Campus, the Duke Library serves as the University’s main library, housing a technology-rich learning environment and a collection of over 400,000 volumes. The addition of the Charlie Peace Wing, connected to the existing library by a light-filled atrium, includes a high-performance air and vapor barrier, lighting control systems, and low-VOC materials.

Shepley Bulfinch was the design architect in association with Neal Prince + Partners of Greenville.

BALTIMORE, MD – The green roof of the Decker Quadrangle at Johns Hopkins University will be on show April 29 on a walking tour offered as part of the sixth annual Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities conference in Baltimore. The tour, “Midtown Baltimore by Foot”, will take conference participants on a two-mile walk through Johns Hopkins’ Homewood campus and the adjoining Remington neighborhood.

One of the largest green roofs in the state of Maryland, the 75,000 sf grassy quadrangle is a defining element of Johns Hopkins’ Homewood campus while screening a 604-space parking garage beneath. The Quadrangle and adjacent Computational Science Building and Mason Hall were completed last fall and ...[more]