The new education and research building’s steel frame is almost finished.

Following a little ceremony at midday, the Iron Workers Local 7 members maneuvered a beam into place at the highest point of the structure, which is 184 feet above the concrete slab foundation, using the 407-foot-tall lattice boom crane, which has been a fixture of the construction site since March. A total of 5,873 steel beams and columns make up the structure’s framework.

Other project leaders who spoke at the topping-off ceremony included Bryan Thorp of Architectural Resources Cambridge, Les Hiscoe of Shawmut Design and Construction, and Barbara Kroncke of the UMass Building Authority (ARC).
Beauce Atlas Inc. produced the building’s structural steel, and the Iron Workers Local 7 helped James F. Stearns Company construct it.

In the middle of the site, between the Albert Sherman Center and the Aaron Lazare Research Building, is the new nine-story structure. To serve the goals of the three graduate schools on campus, it will construct educational and conference areas as well as increase research space to accommodate more than 70 primary scientists.

The installation of the roof and the outside glass and steel panel “curtain wall” system will be the next stage of construction. By winter, the structure should be weatherproof so that interior construction can start.

The new 350,000 square foot structure is slated to debut in 2024 and is intended to attain LEED Gold certification for energy efficiency and sustainability.

Photo Credit WBUR