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MCLA Addition Offers Place for Students to Build Community

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
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Special scissors await the cutting of the ribbon to the new MCLA addition to the Berkshire Towers.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts opened its new $3.2 million lobby and entrance to the Berkshire Towers on Thursday afternoon.

The ribbon-cutting was attended by Edward Adelman, executive director of the Massachusetts State College Building Authority, representatives from the design and contracting companies, alumni, faculty, students and local officials.

(For pictures, click here.)

"The Berkshire Towers didn't provide any opportunities to socialize," said Diane Manning, director of residential programs and services. There were no common areas for students to meet or host events, or engage in community-building activities, she said. "Now, we have a lot of students space and lots of opportunities."

College President Mary K. Grant noted that it was the first significant residence project that the college had embarked on since the Townhouse dormitories were built in 1978.

"Our mission at MCLA is to really have a living/learning community and what goes on in the residence halls supports that ... having a place for students to have a community and to gather and have their own place, just to do the things they want to be doing, is so important," she said.

The 3,000 square-foot addition replaces the maze of ramps and stairways that led into the hillside entrance of the twin towers. The exterior of the hallway that students entered to access the elevators is now the interior wall of the new two-story space.



It includes a corner conference room, main lobby area and utility room that can be closed off with pocket doors for privacy. There is also a full kitchen, comfortable chairs on casters, including some with movable tables for laptops or writing, coffee tables and a long banquet under the many windows with a view of the campus.


Edward Adelman of the State College Building Authority, President Mary K. Grant and sophomore Katy Collins prepare to the cut the ribbon.

The street-level doorway is opposite the old Murdock Hall gates that were installed to provide a formal entrance to the main campus. Designer Anita Licis-Ribak said the positioning of the new doorway was important as a transitioning point to the campus.

Integrating the new space with the old was a complex project, first envisioned as a three-story space, but "the two-story worked much better," she said. The colors are modern greens and purples that help to blend into the exposed brick interior wall.

The building is more accessible, with an elevator from the street entrance to the new lobby area; from there, students can take the appropriate elevator their tower rooms. It also includes new electronic systems, including computer alerts telling students when they're washing is done, and new, safer loading dock access for moving days.

Adelman said the addition brought together disparate parts "that were kind of devoid of each other."

"This is not just functionally accessible if somebody has mobility issues but in the true sense of the word — students live here and this is a space for them."
 
Kuhn Riddle Architects Inc. of Amherst and Aquadro Cerruti Inc. of Northampton were the design and build team for the project, which also included renovations to 5,000 more square feet of existing space.


Tags: building project,   capital projects,   dormitory,   MCLA,   

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North Adams' Route 2 Study Looks at 'Repair, Replace and Remove'

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

Attendees make comments and use stickers to indicate their thoughts on the priorities for each design.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Nearly 70 residents attended a presentation on Saturday morning on how to stitch back together the asphalt desert created by the Central Artery project.
 
Of the three options proposed — repair, replace or restore — the favored option was to eliminating the massive overpass, redirect traffic up West Main and recreate a semblance of 1960s North Adams.
 
"How do we right size North Adams, perhaps recapture a sense of what was lost here with urban renewal, and use that as a guide as we begin to look forward?" said Chris Reed, director of Stoss Landscape Urbanism, the project's designer.
 
"What do we want to see? Active street life and place-making. This makes for good community, a mixed-use downtown with housing, with people living here ... And a district grounded in arts and culture."
 
The concepts for dealing with the crumbling bridge and the roads and parking lots around it were built from input from community sessions last year.
 
The city partnered with Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art for the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program and was the only city in Massachusetts selected. The project received $750,000 in grant funding to explore ways to reconnect what Reed described as disconnected "islands of activity" created by the infrastructure projects. 
 
"When urban renewal was first introduced, it dramatically reshaped North Adams, displacing entire neighborhoods, disrupting street networks and fracturing the sense of community that once connected us," said Mayor Jennifer Macksey. "This grant gives us the chance to begin to heal that disruption."
 
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