The C. Gerald Lucey Building for the Massachusetts’s Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) is a modestly sized building that takes on an outsize role, at once helping to revitalize a struggling historic core, blazing an important new path to sustainability for the Commonwealth and modeling a workplace design of uncommon flexibility and comfort for its hard-working occupants.

When Massachusetts officials opted to keep its Department of Unemployment Assistance regional office in Brockton, it maintained as many as 150 jobs, then expanded the agency’s socioeconomic benefits by moving its new headquarters to a long-vacant site in the city’s once vibrant core.

The study behind the relocation choice marked the start of Jones’ work on the project; it looked at whether to stay put at 36 Main Street or move south to 226 Main Street. The latter sits at the termination of a primary entry corridor into the city and is a focal point for anyone driving into town. The site presented opportunities the state couldn’t pass up.

The new, three-story building houses modern, flexible workspaces for the DUA’s contact center, hearings rooms and administrative staff on the top two floors, and, in a smart pairing of interests, a downtown presence for Massasoit Community College, focused on workforce training, on the ground level.

The building is designed with a cross laminated timber (CLT) and glulam beam and column structural system, an increasingly popular approach to mid-size commercial buildings that presents exciting opportunities for design and sustainability — and not a few procurement hurdles in this case, due chiefly to the project’s status as the Commonwealth’s first CLT building of this scale to use solely public funds.

Putting together an early bid package for timber was key because it allowed the selected CLT manufacturer to lend its considerable expertise earlier in design. This meant making all decisions related to structure — meaning the majority of big design decisions — ahead of more typical timing; it also gave us more time to detail the building envelope and integrate building systems with the structural system.

Drawing on our college campus work throughout New England, the design grounds the building in its historic context while establishing a hallmark of the future. By continuing the rich history of masonry construction that runs up and down Main Street in a contemporary expression of both material and form, the building is both of its place and pushing it forward.

One of the best attributes of CLT is its appeal as a finish material. The warmth and beauty of wood has an uplifting effect on people that one journalist described as “primal.”

Because of its lovely effects, we wanted to expose as much of the wood structure as possible— a tricky venture in a modern building, which is full of ductwork and equipment traditionally hidden, and especially daunting when working in a situation (public procurement) where team members don’t necessarily have experience working together. Jones worked to confine the exposed systems to as small an area as possible, while ramping up orchestration with meticulous equipment documentation, detailed guidelines for organizing the systems, and months of close coordination.

As if its design implications aren’t notable enough, the environmental benefits of mass timber buildings show up in major ways, both reducing carbon emissions and increasing carbon sequestration — about 360 metric tons of carbon benefit in this project. When combined with other sustainability measures integrated into the design, 226 Main will use 44% less energy than a building using standard construction and building systems.

In blazing the trail through new materials-and-methods territory for the state, the project team made room for more mass timber in Commonwealth buildings — and less carbon emissions for all.

On season 2, episode 13 of the High Profile Build Better podcast, "Achieving Sustainability Goals with CLT Building Project," Anastasia Barnes talks with Marc Perras, associate principal at Jones Architecture and Jon Rossini, project manager at Bond Building Construction, about the new C. Gerald Lucey building project for the DUA. As the Commonwealth’s first CLT project of this scale using only public funds, Perras and Rossini talk about the sustainable design elements of the DUA building, and how cross-laminated timber can be used to achieve sustainability goals in a variety of construction projects.

Construction Notes

The site was home to an early 20^th-century department store, vacant for more than a decade and deteriorated beyond use. The plan was to demolish the building before design of the new building was complete, which would allow an accurate survey and understanding of conditions to influence the design.    

However, as demolition began, we learned that the north neighboring building, which shared a party wall, was also significantly deteriorated — to the point where the wall had to be reinforced while the building was in place to avoid collapse during demolition. Design continued on schedule and was completed and bid before complete demolition.

To maintain the schedule, sections of new excavation and foundation work proceeded, while footings in some areas were redesigned to cantilever over the footings of neighboring buildings to remain structurally independent. Site excavation also revealed a buried fuel vault, whose contents had leached into the soil and had to be removed from the site. 

Once demolition was finally complete, a survey revealed that the site was smaller than historic documents had indicated. This meant Jones needed to develop details on both the north and south boundaries of the site to accommodate its compressed width, while maintaining offsets required by seismic codes.

Another, more unique issue arose during design: its location at the terminus of a major roadway into town exposes this building to auto accidents. Over the span of a year two different cars collided with the old building. The new design includes a series of protective measures, including trees and bollards to protect the building and its inhabitants.

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“The work of Jones Architecture at the Department of Unemployment Assistance in Brockton exemplifies a profoundly humane and increasingly important approach to sustainability. The planning of spaces, material choices, and connections to place, daylight and even the canopy of the trees on the terrace are centered on human comfort and wellbeing. This humane form of sustainability is critical for the design of workplaces where people spend so much of their lives, sometimes in stressful jobs. The smart organization of structure and systems is evidence that there is beauty in simplicity and adaptability.”

— Michelle Laboy, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Northeastern University

UP CLOSE:
Scan or click here to explore design details about this project.

• GREEN FACTOR:

  LEED Gold. The sustainable design elements used in this building, the first publicly procured CLT project of this scale in Massachusetts, result in a 44% reduction in energy cost over standard construction and building systems.

• TEAM:

  Principal in Charge: Rick Jones
  Project Director: Marc Perras

• COLLABORATORS:

  Contractor:
  BOND Building Construction, Inc.

  MP/FP Engineer:
  BVH Integrated Services

  Electrical/AV/IT/Security Engineer:
  ART Engineering

  Structural & Geotechnical Engineer:
  RSE Associates

  Civil Engineer:
  Samiotes Consultants

  Landscape Architect:
  Crowley Cottrell

  Code Consultant:
  Code Red Consulting

  Sustainable Design:
  The Green Engineer

  Cost Estimator:
  Ellana

  Lighting Designer:
  Available Light

  Acoustical Engineer:
  Cavanaugh Tocci Associates

  Hazmat Consultant:
  ATC Environmental

  Specifications:
  Kalin Associates

  Hardware Specifications:
  Robbie McCabe Consulting

• AWARDS:

  2022, BE+ Sustainable Construction Innovation Award
  2022, CMAA Project Achievement Award
  2023, NESEA Pro Tour Participant
  2023, ENR Best Project Award-Office/Retail/Mixed-Use Category
  2023, ENR Project of the Year

• PHOTOGRAPHY:

  William Horne