WATERVILLE, Maine—The new $200 million Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center at Colby College in Waterville is now open.

According to a recent college news release. the 350,000-square-foot building is the most advanced and comprehensive NCAA Division-III facility in the nation.

The three-story building was developed to emphasize daylight and openness and maximize views, while conveying a sense of intimacy despite its expansive scale.

The center has an aquatics center with the only Olympic-sized Myrtha pool in Maine, an ice arena with year-round regulation ice, the Margaret M. Crook Center with three regulation-length basketball/volleyball courts, and the open-air O’Neil Atrium at the center of the building.

Other features of this impressive project include:

– a three-level Boulos Family Fitness Center;

– an indoor competition center (track/field house) with a six-lane track, regulation tennis courts, and accommodations for pole vault, high jump, long/triple jump, and shotput;

– a squash center with nine championship regulation courts;

– a 42-foot-tall climbing and bouldering wall with terrain ranging from easy vertical to more difficult articulated areas, and;

– an athletic trainer’s suite with hydrotherapy pools, exam rooms and a triage room.

The college is aiming to achieve LEED Gold certification for the center’s design and construction. Key sustainability components include optimizing natural resources, such as daylight harvesting, minimizing embodied carbon, and reducing energy and water use as well as carbon and greenhouse gas emissions.

Construction of the center was made possible in large part from the philanthropic support of the Harold Alfond Foundation.

The architects on the project are Hopkins Architects and Sasaki. The general contractor is Consigli.

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BATH, Maine — The new $75 million Morse High School in Bath remains on budget and schedule for completion this December, with the grand opening slated for February 2021.

The new school—which will span nearly 190,000 square feet—will replace the century-old Morse High School.

In November 2017, Regional School Unit 1 voters approved a construction bond by a 3-1 margin. The state is funding $67.4 million of the $75.3 million cost; $7.2 million is to be paid locally through borrowing, with $700,000 earmarked from fundraising.

Harvey Construction of Bedford, New Hampshire, is building the new structure, and Topsham-based Crooker Construction is handling sitework.

RU 1 Superintendent Patrick Manuel said, in a statement, that work has been constant and that workers are practicing social distancing within the building.

“Harvey Construction checks on them as they arrive, to keep an eye on the health and safety of everybody there.”

Steve August, chairman of the RSU 1 Board of Directors, said he is satisfied with the progress, in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In spite of all the disruption that’s out there…. at present things seem to be progressing.”

The building, which will incorporate the Bath Regional Career & Technical Center, is approximately 20,000 square feet larger than the 1920s-era Morse High and neighboring technical center combined. The city will take ownership of the original 826 High St. school, and is considering options for reusing the building.

The new school will accommodate 650 students, and include two gyms and two athletic fields, in addition to an enhanced theater.

At present, floor slabs for first-floor classrooms, and auditorium and balcony have been placed; and masonry work is underway, along with roof-to-wall sealing, and installation of skylight wells over the gym and other parts of the building.

RSU 1 is due in December to assume occupancy of the building, and classes are to begin there after February vacation.

August said although RSU 1 had hoped to start immediately after Christmas break, the extra month allows faculty more time to coordinate classroom schedules and the demands of the move, August said.

“It should work well for the students, additionally,” he noted.

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WESTPORT, Maine—When completed in August 2021, the new $75 million Westport Middle-High School will serve up to 860 students in grades 5-12.

This two-story educational building will span 187,000 square feet and is being designed on a project-based learning curriculum with emphasis on STEAM education. There will be a Learning Commons on the ground floor, along with a maker space, fabrication labs, and childcare vocational spaces. It will include two full size gymnasiums, 1,320 square feet of physical education alternative space and a walking track.

The Middle and High school academic spaces are separated from each other, and both will have access to a shared commons. A state-of-the-art library media center is located on the main floor adjacent to the main entrance. The building envelope consists of masonry, glazing and metal panels.

Agostini Construction is the general contractor on this impressive project. Jonathan Levi Architects is the architect.

The project is seeking certification from the US Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System, Version 4 New Construction and Major Renovation.

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BAR HARBOR, Maine — The College of the Atlantic’s (COA) new $13 million Center for Human Ecology is designed to create state-of-the-art spaces for the waterfront campus’ learning community.

The transformative project set for COA aims to provide interdisciplinary learning and collaboration and enhanced opportunities for community engagement, as well as a new welcome center and front door.

At the heart of a multi-phase project, the Center for Human Ecology will be a light-filled, two-story building with sweeping views of Frenchman Bay that enhances the campus landscape by framing a new outdoor courtyard on the North Lawn.

“The Center for Human Ecology will exemplify the experiential model of education pioneered at College of the Atlantic, where research, mentoring, socializing, and experimentation come together to create new knowledge, new ideas, and new works, both for our island and for the world at large,” said COA President Darron Collins. “The center will embody our interdisciplinary mission, gathering sciences, arts, and humanities under one roof and inspiring engaged exploration for generations to come.”

The 29,000-square-foot center will comprise science laboratories, flexible lecture halls, faculty offices, art and design studios, and a teaching greenhouse within a bright, high-energy performance environment. Further project phases, totaling approximately 16,000 square feet, include construction of an experimental theater, art gallery, propagation greenhouse, and “The Landing,” a welcome center and entrance plaza that will house admissions offices and act as a front door for the structure.

COA’s last new academic building was constructed in the 1980s when the student body was under 200. The student population today is strategically small and capped at approximately 350.

COA trustees unanimously approved construction of the Center for Human Ecology building at their winter meeting on Jan. 26. E.L. Shea, Inc. of Ellsworth, Maine will lead the construction phase of the project which is set to begin in the spring and be completed by September 2020.

The architects for the project are Susan T. Rodriguez Architecture and Design based in New York and GO Logic based in Belfast, Maine. The design team worked closely with COA staff, students, and faculty over the course of more than a year in developing the design for the building.

A comprehensive strategy toward sustainability, inspired by the College’s long-term commitment to the preservation of the natural world and a campus culture that promotes active involvement in that effort, informed the overall  approach to the design from the outset, including site selection, solar orientation, use of local and recycled materials, onsite renewable energy sources, and a high-performance envelope and design.

“The Center for Human Ecology celebrates the many facets of campus life, reinforces connections to COA’s waterfront, and embraces the interdisciplinary nature of the COA curriculum,” said Project Architect Susan T. Rodriguez, FAIA. “Our goal was to create an architecture that would embody and reinforce the college’s mission by integrating the design into this spectacular site, resulting in a building that could only be found at COA.”

Throughout the project, building features reinforce relationships between interior and exterior spaces, responding both to COA’s culture—its deep awareness of the natural world—and site, prioritizing views of the ocean and the backdrop of Acadia National Park, said Rodriguez.

The intersection of disciplines is expressed in the building’s design concept—at its center, public space and circulation come together to create flexible, multipurpose teaching and gathering spaces on both levels. Angled walls align to the primary geometry of the building, focusing activity around a shared center, while framing panoramic views south towards campus along a two-story glass façade.

“The site and the building’s wide range of spaces bring together the arts and sciences, land and sea, summer and winter, tradition and innovation, high-tech and low-tech informed by local and global considerations,” said Rodriguez. “Capturing these intersections defines a new architectural paradigm inspired by the unique character of this campus landscape and COA’s interdisciplinary curriculum.”

Construction of the center will follow the German Passive House standard for energy performance, representing an 80 percent reduction in energy use versus comparable code-compliant construction, said Timothy Lock of GO Logic. The center will be the largest project of this type designed according to Passive House principals built for this climate, he said.

“Powered by COA’s dedication to sustainability and high performance throughout, the Center for Human Ecology represents new guideposts for what is possible for forward-looking academic buildings in a far northern climate,” said Lock.

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