The addition of a 37,000 square foot wing to North Shore Community College’s McGee Building took its first physical steps forward this week with the arrival of a construction trailer and temporary fencing to the 300 Broad Street campus.
The addition will provide 10 up-to-date classrooms, a consolidated Student Success Center, a centralized testing center, math redesign space, Academic Technology space, a Center for Teaching, Learning and Assessment, and several offices.
The project is being managed by The Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM), the state agency responsible for major public building construction, integrated facilities management, and real estate services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. DCAMM selected Delulis Brothers Construction Company of Lynn to be the project contractor and Shepley Bulfinch as project designer. It is anticipated the new construction, which is budgeted at $21,090,600, will take two years to complete with the opening targeted for spring semester 2017.
Internal space has already been reconfigured to prepare for construction. For instance, Enrollment and Student Records on the Lynn Campus has been relocated to LW157 and LW205 for the duration of the Lynn Expansion project. Outside site preparation work will be ongoing over the next six weeks with piling installation, slated to begin in mid-August, to be completed by the beginning of the school year in September.
The Lynn campus opened in 1985, intending to serve 1,000 students, and was immediately filled to capacity. Expansion has been recommended and discussed since 2002. Currently approximately 49 percent of NSCC’s nearly 15,000 credit students attend classes primarily on the Lynn campus.
“The Lynn campus was too small when it opened and it has been over capacity ever since. Our space needs are great so seeing this project come to fruition is very exciting and long overdue,” said NSCC President Patricia A. Gentile. “NSCC is the city of Lynn’s only institution of higher education and we embrace our role as a community resource and contributing partner. We look forward to the expanded opportunities this new facility will provide for all.”