Standish Hall at Endicott College

Pre-fabrication meets the goals for a new residence hall at Endicott College.

Architecture can be a risky business. Getting a new building — like a student residence hall — completed on time and on budget means managing many variables. For Boston-area colleges, having residences ready to meet surging enrollment projections sometimes takes untried methods; which of course brings more risk.

Endicott College needed a new 295 bed residence hall for their upperclassmen for the fall of 2015. To meet their students’ expectations; it needed to be a modern, state-of-the-art facility, with exciting common spaces and study lounges. The site chosen was a beautiful wooded corner of Endicott’s rocky waterfront campus. And it had to be ready for move-in within in 12 months.

Fortunately, Endicott had an experienced design/build partnership in the Bergmeyer and Windover Construction team. Having recently finished a residence hall in conventional steel-framed construction, the team recognized conventional measures were not going to meet Endicott’s needs in time. In order to meet to meet the college’s challenging schedule, the team leveraged modular construction and built off-site without sacrificing the quality of craftsmanship.

With extensive upfront design and planning, the project was a success. Using the same materials as traditional construction, 85% of the project was built off-site in a controlled indoor environment. The controlled environment enabled the modules to be built during the worst winter New England has seen in years; something a traditional process would not have been able to accomplish. This insured that many of the things that could go wrong on a construction site, did not. Embracing modular construction allowed Endicott to save on some on-site costs, which they then invested in the common areas, creating plush and dramatic interior spaces. The students who moved into Standish Hall were delighted by the polished interiors, the college was pleased to open the residence hall on time, on budget and the project team found the process to be both inspiring as well as enlightening.