This building contained a fairly technologically sophisticated  system when it was completed in 2007. I couldn’t map out how the boilers created steam and electricity at the same time, but I will never forget how many times I calculated those curved girders in order to describe them to the fabricators accurately enough.

I spent more than two years working on the project – first on the design team, then in charge of the construction process. For a year and a half I drove out to Western Massachusetts once a week to meet with the construction team and the client.

One interesting part of the brief was that the building wasn’t designed to for very many people to use it, but it was being built in a very prominent spot at the entrance to the campus, so it had to look good.  Continue reading “UMass Combined Heat and Power Plant”