Payette completes master plan feasibility studies at Boston College and Temple

Payette has completed the master plan feasibility studies for upgrades to healthcare, medical school and academic science buildings at Temple University's Health Sciences Campus and Boston College. Boston College Higgins Hall, Chestnut Hill, Mass. Payette was retained by Boston College to lead a master planning effort to examine operations within Higgins Hall in an effort to determine utilization, deficiencies, opportunities, and challenges in the context of the future needs of the departments that occupy the building. These include the biology, physics, and psychology departments. Boston College has determined that Higgins Hall should support existing research while simultaneously appealing to new faculty recruits. As each department within the building has projected growth within the next two years, this master plan has identified current utilization rates, flexibility of assignment, and developed a schematic plan for the accommodation of new faculty and resources. These actions identify potential projects and a path to implementation, which addresses departmentally defined needs in an effort to support the research and educational agenda in Higgins Hall until approximately 2018. With the ultimate goal of creating an Integrated Science Building (ISB) adjacent to this location, the master planning effort was undertaken to determine appropriate renovation projects for a five to eight year development plan prior to the completion of an ISB. The Master Plan study provides Boston College with a guide that illustrates step-by-step renovation projects and associated costs that allows for the flexible assignment of departmental and shared programs as needs arise. Temple University Health Sciences Campus, Philadelphia, Penn. Payette completed a long-range, flexible framework plan to guide future development of Temple University's Health Sciences Campus (HSC) in North Philadelphia, which includes 3.9 million s/f and 3,300 parking spaces. The Health Sciences Campus encompasses a broad range of professional schools dedicated to training the next generation of healthcare providers and advancing health science research. These include the School of Medicine, the School of Dentistry, the College of Health Professions and Social Work, the School of Pharmacy and the School of Podiatric Medicine. The Health Sciences Campus is also home to Temple University Hospital, the flagship of the Temple University Health System and the primary teaching site of Temple's professional programs. The HSC is located in North Philadelphia, a section of the city that has been suffering a long period of decline. Recognizing the role that anchor institutions such as academic medical centers can play as an economic engine to spur growth and development, the planning process engaged a complex set of stakeholders. The project involved identifying sites for new buildings, strategic renovations to existing buildings, implementation scenarios, landscape and streetscape improvements, as well as identifying opportunities for partnerships with private developers to provide retail and housing. Planning strategies centered on seeking opportunities for mixed-use development at the edges of this urban medical center campus to establish stronger and safer connections to existing transit nodes such as nearby subway and rail lines. A signature green open space, in conjunction with streetscape improvements, will provide a much-needed campus identity, bringing together a collection of disparate buildings into a cohesive whole. Careful consideration of the campus' boundaries with the neighborhood will help knit the campus into its surrounding residential and commercial context, stimulating development to transform the medical center into a thriving district. "We are pleased to have been chosen by both Temple and BC to help study and plan for their futures," said Kevin Sullivan, FAIA, Payette principal-in-charge. "Our experience in these areas enabled us to identify the unique needs of these institutions and to work within their parameters to develop plans that makes sense for their individual growth and development." "Payette led an extremely clear and well organized process which succeeded in coalescing a very large group of constituents," said Margaret Carney AIA, University Architect and Associate Vice President for Temple University. "I believe this study has inspired change that will inspire not only the University and North Philadelphia, but other communities facing similar challenges."