The newly dedicated John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies and Barry Mills Hall have been selected ENR New England’s best project in the higher education/research category.
The buildings are innovative, both for their style and building materials. They compose the first commercial construction project in the state of Maine to use mass timber, a pioneering wood-based product, as its primary load-bearing material—a fact celebrated by industry professionals and observers.
“From the College’s commitment to carbon neutrality, to its location among a grove of pine trees to the timber-rich history of Maine, the project setting seemed well-suited for a mass timber structure,” wrote Lauren Piepho, PE, a structural engineer at HGA—the lead architecture and engineering firm on the project—in the case study, “Furthering Mass Timber Construction,” published with construction partner Consigli, Inc., in July 2022.
The two-building project will be featured along with other best project winners in the October issue of ENR New England, a weekly trade magazine covering the construction industry, and honored at an awards event in Boston.
Bowdoin was one of ten institutions to receive funding from the US Forest Service in partnership with the US Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that works collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities.
Read about the dedications of the John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies and Barry Mills Hall.
