Project

Emerson College — Little Building Reimagining

Project Description

Originally constructed in 1917, the 12-story building had nine floors of office space, a two-story shopping arcade, post office, restaurants, and tunnels connecting it to the subway and neighboring theaters. Elkus Manfredi reprogrammed and reimagined the building into a mixed-use student residence for 750 students.
The repositioning effort included a major façade renovation and restoration that employed laser scanning and digital reconstructions, infill of the lightwells to create upper-story common rooms, and improvements for structural and MEP building systems.
This cornerstone of Emerson’s campus is home to 1,054 students and offers additional instructional and collaboration space as well as ground floor retail.

Photographer: Robert Benson

Project

University of Southern Maine – Portland Commons Residence Hall and Career & Student Success Center

Project Description

Career and Student Success Center (CSSC) at University of Southern Maine, designed to LEED-Silver certification with a hybrid steel and mass timber structural system, will create a new, vibrant heart of the Portland campus.
The CSSC will include space for dining, student organizations, a university store, a Diversity center and veterans and career services.
As the first-ever student housing on the Portland campus, the Commons will add 585 beds for undergraduates in their upper-class years and graduate students. Designed to achieve Passive House sustainability certification, the two wings of the building embrace a central courtyard with common areas on the ground floor that spill out onto the street, providing visual interest and activity along a bustling entry point to campus.

Renderings by Elkus Manfredi Architects

Project

University of Chicago Woodlawn Residential and Dining Commons

Project Description

The Woodlawn Residential and Dining Commons provides 1,298 students with an on-campus home; contributing to the University’s goal of 75 percent of undergraduates living on campus.
The residential program includes eleven houses with 118 residents per house, each house accommodating 30 percent of students in singles, 30 percent in doubles, and 40 percent in four-bedroom apartments.
The floor plans of each house are configured to promote collegiality within the house and interaction between upperclassmen in apartments and underclassmen in the single and double accommodations.
The Commons offers state-of-the-art amenities including academic study spaces, social spaces, and a vibrant dining common with capacity for 650 students.

Photographer: Brad Feinknopf

Project

University of Massachusetts Boston Student Residence Hall and Dining Commons

Project Description

263,000-square-foot, certified-LEED-NC Gold facility comprised of two buildings framing a new pedestrian path leading into the heart of the school’s Columbia Point campus.
Including 1,077 beds, this first residence hall in the campus’ history offers a diverse mix of room types organized around distinct living communities.
The facility also accommodates several multi-purpose spaces, conference rooms for group study, administrative offices, and a 500-seat dining hall.

Photographer: Robert Benson and Bruce T. Martin (dorm room)

Project

Emerson College — Two Boylston Place & Dining Center

Project Description

18-story, 375-bed residence hall offers suites, single, double, and triple student residences in the heart of the college’s growing campus in Boston’s historic Theatre District.
Features five themed, destination common rooms that address the urban campus’s need for indoor and outdoor communal student spaces.
Totaling 18,000 square feet and seating 550, the Dining Center’s two distinct levels are connected by a grand open staircase.
Demonstrates a creative reinvention/restoration of three long-underutilized retail spaces on the College’s Theatre District campus.
Certified LEED-NC Gold while preserving and incorporating the façade of an historic Ancient Landmark Building into the new structure.

Photographer: Peter Vanderwarker

Project

Boston University Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre and College of Fine Arts Production Center

“It is exciting to have this new state-of-the-art theater as the centerpiece for the role that the students and faculty of the School of Theatre play in infusing the arts into our campus.”

Robert A. Brown

President, Boston University

Project Description

The 75,000-sf facility unifies the College of Fine Arts School of Theatre with features that support all aspects of theatre production and performance arts.
Innovative building materials contribute to the architecturally stunning façade that elevates the university’s presence on Commonwealth Avenue.
Program elements include a 21,000-square-foot multi-functional studio theatre for an audience of 250; a Production Center that houses paint, set, and scene shops; plus faculty offices and teaching spaces.

Photographer: Robert Benson & Eric Laignel

Read Project Description

Set production and painting area in the BU Booth Theatre

Project

The Ohio State University – South Campus Gateway

“We have felt very satisfied, very comfortable with the decision to hire Elkus Manfredi. They really understand the demands of urban design and the complexities of mixing uses in buildings.

Terry Foegler

Former Associate Vice President, Planning and Real Estate Operations at The Ohio State University

Project Description

This 887,000-sf mixed-use development has transformed a neglected urban area—and the main entry to the campus—to create a welcoming college-town environment and sense of arrival to the OSU campus.
Strategically planned mixed-use programming included 225,000-sf of street-level retail, 12 restaurants, an eight-screen cinema, 180 residences, and the relocated University bookstore.
A unifying urban design project, the Gateway has made the University’s cultural resources more available to the City of Columbus, creating incentive for junior faculty and others to live in surrounding residential neighborhoods, thereby reclaiming the formerly rundown area.

Photographer: Brad Feinknopf

Read Project Description

Project

Harvard University Graduate Commons

Project Description

Bringing new graduate student housing to Harvard’s Cambridge campus, this six-story residence hall transforms the edge of the University’s campus in the Riverside neighborhood.
Featuring 141 apartments plus 189 parking and 104 bicycle spaces on three levels below grade, the building’s design incorporates a façade of brick, copper, limestone, and granite—materials that closely relate to the vernacular of Harvard’s historic River Houses.
Bridging the architectural variety of the site’s context—from adjacent University towers to the pedestrian-scaled residential neighborhood—required careful urban design that balanced massing, and stepped heights and setbacks to recogonize adjacent residences.

Photographer: Robert Benson

Harvard University Graduate Commons day exterior

Harvard University Graduate Commons Exterior

Harvard University Graduate Commons Trellis

Project

Rutgers Academic Building

“Quality of life is important. These types of buildings help Rutgers market itself as the preeminent public research university in the region, and that translates to us being able to attract corporations — existing companies, start-ups, and entrepreneurs — to locate to New Brunswick, which in turn helps to create job growth.”

Chris Paladino

President, DEVCO (New Brunswick Development Corporation)

Project Description

The 211,518-sf Rutgers Academic Building connects the academic core of the University’s historic New Brunswick campus with the student residences of North Campus. Tiered interior spaces and a series of rising terraces and stairs between the building’s two wings create social spaces and places of collaboration both inside and out.
The building features five lecture halls, 17 general purpose classrooms, active learning classrooms, seminar rooms, and language and media labs.
The remaining 85,000 sf is dedicated to departmental offices for faculty and staff and also incorporates graduate student lounges and work areas to foster cross-departmental and faculty/student collaboration.

Photographer: Brad Feinknopf

Read Project Description

“The connection to and continuation of the Voorhees Mall locks the building into the larger historic campus context. In addition, the building completes the space of the adjacent Honors College quad.”

Joe Pryse AIA

Architect, Elkus Manfredi Architects

Project

The Paramount Center

“The vision for Emerson is to develop the coolest, hippest, most compelling destination in downtown. The Paramount Center is truly a center for creative collaboration among students, faculty, performers, and the public. As the College had originally hoped, this facility is fully realizing its important role at the heart of Emerson’s mission.”

Lee Pelton

President, Emerson College

Project Description

A key component of Emerson’s new campus in Boston’s Theatre District, this 39,200-sf, mixed-use development joined together new construction with the landmarked Paramount Theatre and adjacent Arcade building, plus a neighboring backlot.
The Center incorporates the renovated Paramount Theatre, a black box theatre, a scene/prop shop, rehearsal spaces, classrooms, a sound stage, a film screening room, plus a 262-bed residence hall and 150-seat streetfront restaurant.
The renovated Paramount Theatre is now a 590-seat live-performance space used for performances by both students and professional artists from all over the world through the ArtsEmerson program.

Photographer: Peter Vanderwarker

Read Project Description

Preservation Honor Award

National Trust for Historic Preservation, 2011

Award

Paul E Tsongas Award

Preservation Massachusetts, 2011

Award

Merit Award

United States Institute of Theater Technology, 2011

Award

Design Excellence Award – Venues

Live Design Magazine, 2011

Award

Awards of Merit – Exterior and Interior Lighting

Illuminating Engineering Society, 2011

Award

New England Design Award

American Institute of Architects, New England Chapter, 2010

Award

Preservation Achievement Award – Significant Rehabilitation / Restoration

Boston Preservation Alliance, 2010

Award

Honor Award for Design Excellence

Boston Society of Architects, 2010

Award

Building Project of the Year – Renovation / Modernization Less Than $100 Million

Construction Managers Association of America – New England Chapter, 2010

Award

Best of 2010, Project of the Year – Renovation / Restoration

New York Construction Magazine, 2010