Introduction
Pavarini has provided preconstruction and construction phase services for multiple projects at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY totaling over 380,000-SF, including a new library, academic building, dormitories and the Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Chapel. For each project, we successfully addressed safety and security concerns with a site-specific plan, as well as met the logistical and phasing challenges that are unique to the campus. During one of our first projects for Marist, we addressed the College’s need to be as minimally disruptive as possible while working on campus. To meet this need, we developed a worker and material staging area off campus, busing in the laborers and construction materials very early in the morning to avoid congesting the limited campus roadways.
West Cedar Street Student Housing
This project (photo above) involved the construction of a new unique townhouse-styled, student residential facility, which is a departure from the traditional student residence. The facility encompasses 66,000-SF and consists of six, two-story buildings, accommodating for 240 students.
The façade of the structure combines red brick with gray block – a similar color scheme as existing townhouses and other campus buildings. Dormers accent the roofline of the metal standing seam roof. Four of the townhouse buildings contain five 8-student apartments and two of the buildings contain four, ten-student apartments. Each of the apartments has a large kitchen with two large refrigerators, a dishwasher, and both conventional and microwave ovens. Other amenities include three full bathrooms, dining area and double bedrooms. Located in one of the buildings are the centralized laundry facilities, student lounge and a convenience store. Associated site work included a courtyard and six tennis courts.
Fontaine Hall
This project entailed the construction of a new 33,700-SF, 4-story structural steel framed academic building. Fontaine Hall houses the Humanities faculty, Offices for College Advancement, Alumni Affairs, and the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, and provides five classrooms. Fontaine Hall projects an image of both traditional values and progressive architectural features. The fa çade of the building, with its unique, modern appeal is clad with 3” sandblasted Eramosa Limestone and is punctuated with soaring 30’ high gray stone “fins.” However, even with its highly modern design, Fontaine Hall still resembles the more historic campus buildings with its classical gray palette.
The School’s main faculty offices and conference rooms occupy the building’s second and third levels. The Marist Institute for Public Opinion (MIPO), with its own 35-workstation phone center, is located on the first floor. Also on the first floor, four of the five classrooms include multimedia podiums and projection systems. One of the classrooms serves as a black box theater. This theatre features a sound system, video and computer projection capabilities, black walls and a black floor to allow for dramatic projected images and other performance effects. It can accommodate musical and theatrical performances and includes theatrical lighting and separate A/C units to handle increased heat loads during performances. The lower level houses Marist’s fund-raising activities headquarters. The lobby features a three-story connecting skylight and terrazzo flooring. The two-story soaring windows dominate the main entrance of the building that has a stepped courtyard creating a sense of community and promoting interaction of students and faculty members.
Dormitories Renovation
This project involved the renovation of three existing dormitory buildings over a three-year period. Sheahan Hall is three stories and totals 26,000-SF; Leo Hall is six stories and totals 67,000-SF; and Champagnat Hall is nine stories and totals 99,000-SF. Construction activities took place during the summer months of May to September each year. This allowed the college to take full advantage of the students’ non-use of the facilities during their summer recess. Each summer, we renovated one dormitory with a scope of the work that included upgrading of all MEP, ADA and life safety systems. Once complete, the dormitories accommodated about 700 students with 360 rooms. Sheahan Hall, constructed in 1961-1962, was the first structure on campus and erected with federal loan funds. The building’s name is in memory of Monsignor J. F. Sheahan - a very good friend of the Marist Brothers – and houses freshman students. In 1963, a federal government loan helped fund Leo Hall, also a residence for freshmen. Brother Leo Brouiletter was responsible for securing the original charter for the Marist Normal Training School. The school named Leo Hall in his honor. In 1964, the school constructed Champagnat Hall in memory of Marcellin Champagnat, the French priest who founded the Marist Brothers in 1817. The nine-story residence hall houses over 400 students and has dramatic views of the Hudson River Valley.
James A. Cannavino Library
This project entailed the construction of a new 81,000-SF, three-story library. The building has a very classical appearance created through the mixture of the design and materials. The rubble stone veneer is a square-cut granite schist stone, along with base stones and trim pieces of Amherst Grey Sandstone. What results is the softening appearance of limestone with distinctive veining qualities that also contribute to the traditional appearance. The facility is equipped with 850 study seats and 4 electronic classrooms. Most of the desks are equipped for plug-and-play laptop access. The library has even doubled the previous stack space. Students and faculty also have more workstations in the new library and 200 new desktops.
IBM selected Marist College as an ideal partner to test the user adaptability of its large system technology solutions in a small to medium-sized customer environment and to develop academic applications of its technology. The IBM Digital Library initiative transformed the college’s library into a national model for the integration of digital technology in library functions and services. The new library also contains a “special collections” area that includes the Lowell Thomas Collection, the Marist archives, the Hudson River Environmental Society materials, the Hudson Valley regional archives and the Fore-Edge painting collection. The library has a variety of on-line research services and an electronic reserve room known as Multimedia Electronic Reserve Institutional Technology (MERIT) providing a burgeoning wealth of periodical and reference materials.
Chapel Renovation
This project involved the renovation of an existing 6,500-SF chapel. The chapel received a new stone veneer, lead coated copper roof, HVAC system and new stained glass windows. An adjustment to the steeple made it shorter to bring the chapel up to scale with the rest of the campus. The chapel is the crown jewel in the diadem of buildings, which comprise the Marist College campus. Upon it completion in 1953, the chapel’s circular design was one of the first for a Catholic church in the United States. Acting as contractor and using simple building techniques, a member of the faculty, Brother Nilus, built the chapel with Marist Brothers’ labor. Poured reinforced concrete buttresses and walls support the laminated wood beams holding up the roof.
Instead of stained glass windows, Brother Nilus borrowed an idea of Eastman Kodak that he witnessed in New York City’s Grand Central Station. He lined the upper inner perimeter of the chapel with photographic images of the Virgin Mary. On sheets of heavy plastic, he embedded the images of a model portraying the Madonna with accompanying quotes from scripture. He suspended plastic sheets on springs, which compensated for the expansion from the sunlight and the contraction during the night.
