Tufts Dental School

[Mike]

Tufts Dental Rising

Tufts Dental School at Kneeland and Washington streets plans to add five stories to the currently-10-story building.

"The building was designed for vertical expansion," said John Roberto, vice president of operations at Tufts University. "We're just out of space right now."

When the dental school was built in 1973, it was created to allow for an increase in height, said Roberto, who announced the school's plans at the Chinatown Safety Committee meeting on April 4. He expects the construction will be completed by 2010.


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[Bobby Digital]

This brings up something i always wondered about.... can you add floors to a skyscraper? never seen it done, obviously they do it all the time on short buildings.

[kz1000ps]

As long as the structure was designed to handle extra loads, then there's no reason why any type of building can't be vertically added onto. One example that pops into mind is one of Denver, CO's towers.. the one that looks like a giant cash register--they added some floors and that "cash register" top later on.

[PaulC]

The additional floors were planned from the beginning. The elevators that were installed have cut outs for the additional buttons. The Alewife T garage has the same thing in it's elevator.

[Scott]

Faneuil Hall is an early example of a major building of its time adding another floor.

The demolished Fiske Building has its elegant granite facade covered and its chimneys chopped off to add five floors. Emporis has it listed as 10 floors but I believe it was 14 or 15 when taken down in 1984 to make way for 75 State Street.

[Padre Mike]

And the added top floors of the Fiske that replaced it's elegant roof line were done in a 1960s beach motel style, complete with balconies. We hope Tufts might improve on its present building with a bit more imagination and style.

[Mike]

from http://www.bostonchinatowngateway.com./ :

Project Details
- Existing building is 10 stories, 174 feet in height, 178,346 sq ft.
- Add 5-stories (bringing height to 224 feet) and approximately 90,000 sq ft.
- No new parking proposed.
- No traffic and parking impacts are expected as 75% of patients use public transportation.
- Estimated construction *20-24 months, finish in 2010 (the Tufts University speaker said 20-24mo, in the fact sheet it listed 18 months.)

Public Benefits
- Increase dental services
- Beautification of existing plaza and sidewalks
- Provide 150 construction jobs
- Contribute funds to Boston Neighborhood Housing and Jobs Trust

Public Process
- Project Notification Form submitted to the Boston Redevelopment Authority on March 15, 2007.
- Public comment period ends April 24, 2007.
- Contact Sonal Gandhi, BRA, One City Hall Square, Boston, MA 02201 or sonal.gandhi.bra@cityofboston.gov
- Tufts University contact: Mr. Glenn Hand, Project Manager, 617-636-3607

[LeTaureau]

And we can't forget that the Customs House Tower was added to the original neoclassical Customs House building.

[JimboJones]

So, these are buildings that can have floors added, or have had floors added.

The next logical discussion is, buildings in Boston that have had floors removed ...

One I know of is near Haymarket Station, the building at the corner, next to where the Farmer's Market used to be.

It used to be five stories, but they took a story off, because the city was assessing it by the floor ... and they wanted to lower their property tax bill.

[Mike]

Mayor Announces BRA Approval of Tufts Expansion Project
Dental School will Increase Patient Capacity & Community Benefits


The Boston Redevelopment Authority Board today approved Tufts University?s proposal to expand their existing Dental School building on their Boston Health Sciences campus, located on the corner of Kneeland and Washington Street. In addition to an expanded and improved Dental School, Tufts will redesign their main entrance to make it more inviting to the surrounding community and embark on a number of community benefits, which range from public realm improvements on Washington Street to workforce development programs that will encourage kids in the city to choose dental medicine as a career. Specifically, the total expansion includes a five-story addition consisting of approximately 95,500 square feet, which will alleviate overcrowding and provide additional program space for the School of Dental Medicine.

?The Tufts Dental School expansion is not only good for Tufts, but it?s good for the community and city as a whole,? Mayor Menino said. ?In addition to their improved services for students and patients, Tufts is making a real commitment to employ Boston residents and promote dental medicine as a career for Boston youth.?

As a result of the expansion, the Dental School will be able to grow modestly. The additional space will increase the school?s clinical capacity by 24 dental chairs, and will permit the school to gradually increase its enrollment over a five year period. Each of the 24 chairs in the clinics will handle two to three patients a day. The Dental School also expects an increase of about ten permanent faculty positions and 52 additional students by 2011.

The Dental School building was envisioned back in 1973 as a fifteen-story building. However, the Dental School?s economic resources could only accomplish a 10-story building, and therefore it was determined that the building should be constructed in two phases. Given recent space constraint issues, the University now feels that the time is right to move forward on phase two. They submitted their proposal back in March 2007 in order to amend their current Institutional Master Plan, which was most recently updated in May 2004 and expires in 2013.

Tufts also recognizes the importance of a more prominent, attractive and functional entrance to its Dental School. While a ground-floor retail banking lease precludes any relocation of the entrance, the University will redesign the existing entry on Kneeland Street to provide a more open and welcoming character.

The University has also committed to numerous public benefits associated with the expansion project, including improvements to the median strip on Washington Street; a yearly $10,000 contribution (for three years) to Project Place for their Clean Corners program in Chinatown and Downtown Crossing; participation in community dental services programs; contributions to the City?s Neighborhood Housing and Jobs Trust funds; and an increase in PILOT payments. Additionally, the university will provide a number of workforce development measures in order to enhance employment opportunities for city of Boston residents. These include working with Jobnet to provide employment opportunities; working with the Boston Private Industry Council on a pilot summer jobs program; outreach to several of the city?s high schools to introduce and attract students to careers as dental assistants, dental hygienists, and professional dentists; making the Dental School available as a training site for dental hygiene students from the Forsyth Institute and Mount Ida College; and creating a job shadow program.

Tufts? development team includes ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge as architect, Shawmut Design and Construction as the general contractor, DLA Piper as legal counsel and Howard/Stein-Hudson Associates as civil engineer. Total project cost is estimated at $50 million. Anticipated construction start date is March 2008 with an expected completion in December 2009.



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[Mike]

Tufts dental school adding 5 floors
By Greg Turner
Friday, May 2, 2008


The Tufts University School of Dental Medicine stages a ?sky-breaking? ceremony today on a five-story addition to its Kneeland Street structure.

The $66.5 million vertical expansion of the now 10-story building will create 95,000 square feet of classroom and clinical space, giving students and staff more elbow room.

?There is no ground to break because we?re starting on the roof of the 10th floor,? said Joseph Castellana, the school?s executive associate dean.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority approved the project in October and contractor Shawmut Design and Construction is scheduled to finish the job by November 2009.

Tufts originally intended to build a 16-story dental school, but didn?t have enough money for a full high-rise. But the circa-1973 structure was designed to accommodate a future expansion.

The nation?s second-largest dental school has about 800 students and 400 faculty members.

Castellana said the school lined up a loan before credit markets tightened. A Tufts-wide fund-raising campaign will cover just over half of the expansion?s cost.

The school will try to minimize disruptions during construction. ?We have this detailed out room by room, week by week,? Castellana said.





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[bdurden]

Originally Posted by Mike

Tufts dental school adding 5 floors
By Greg Turner
Friday, May 2, 2008

Tufts originally intended to build a 16-story dental school, but didn?t have enough money for a full high-rise. But the circa-1973 structure was designed to accommodate a future expansion.

Really though?

[PaulC]

Even from day one the elevator panels had extra spots for the additional floors, same as the Alwife T garage.

[jass]

Originally Posted by PaulC

Even from day one the elevator panels had extra spots for the additional floors, same as the Alwife T garage.

How mnay more floors are/were planned for alewife, and doesnt it get full now?

[PaulC]

2 more floors

Here is a recent article:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/art...lewife_garage/

[kz1000ps]

What a trainwreck of a building, huh? I thought the brown brutalist thing next door was bad, but at least it has a coherent design theme.

.

[itchy]

You rock, kz! Thanks for the heroic effort; it's much appreciated.

[kz1000ps]

Oh, there's plenty more coming. When I go downtown I go all out! heh..

[mdd]

A larger rendering,

[Cojapo]

Too bad that don't find a way to soften up the concrete. It's a pretty cold building.