Context/Significance
This building was commissioned by the Army National Guard in order to modernize its vehicle maintenance operations that were housed in outdated, inadequate facilities. The project was developed at Camp Curtis Guild (CCG), a 700-acre installation that falls within the jurisdiction of three town governments north of Boston.
Description
DHK provided A/E services that included programming, design and construction administration. The building contains 65,000 gross square feet of built area. It houses a 14-bay, vehicle maintenance facility designed to serve a fleet with a wide variety of military vehicles that support Army National Guard operations in northeastern Massachusetts. Other program functions include training rooms, offices and storage space. A significant portion of CCG is wetlands, and several areas were previously used as firing ranges but weren’t formally closed or remediated of lead contamination. In addition, the central portion of CCG was designated as a historic resource by the State Historic Officer.
These factors became a major focus of a concept design phase, with the goal of identifying a project site that minimized environmental impacts, limited the risk of project delay due to requirements for permitting or remediation, and reduced adverse impacts on normal training operations at CCG. The project includes a quarter mile long new access road and utility corridor, a fueling station and a separate cold storage building.
Special features
Sustainability was a major consideration for the client. Many green features were built into the project to achieve eligibility for the Silver Award by the DoD Spirit Program, the Army’s version of the US Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System.