Hess Center for the Arts

Revitalizing Campus Culture: Historic Buildings Transformed and New Addition creates a State-of-the-Arts Center that is a Fusion of Heritage and Innovation

Located in the heart of the campus, this project involved the renovation of five buildings originally built in the years of 1952, 1954, 1988, and 1999. The scopes of work in those buildings consisted of masonry restoration, slate and membrane roof repair, window replacement, and upgrades to HVAC, plumbing, fire protection, fire alarm electrical, and lighting systems. Work also included preservation and restoration of existing millwork, elevator upgrade and restoration of the balcony in the auditorium.

Renovated spaces within the building included the existing black box theater, art studios, music practice rooms, dance studio, classrooms, offices, storage, and support spaces. A new 30,000-square-foot addition was added to house the art gallery, acting lab, chamber hall, and associated support spaces. Features of these spaces included a radiant heated floor in the art gallery with high ceilings and unique architectural details throughout the concert hall and gallery. Enabling for this project included upgrading the existing utility infrastructure and rerouting existing utility lines out of the footprint of the new addition.

A high level of finish quality was expected at Deerfield. The DOC team spent a lot of time with the architect working out the intricate millwork details throughout the building.

Project Highlights

• Logistically complex, heart-of-campus project site
• Extensive renovations to important campus facility
• High level of coordination and team collaboration required to successfully deliver project
• Full preconstruction and construction services provided
• Extensive use of BIM