Five College Library Annex Recognized as Outstanding Design-Build Project

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The Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), New England Region, has awarded the Five College Library Annex project team a bronze award in the building construction category.

The winning collaboration included Five Colleges, CSL Consulting, Cutler Associates, Cutler Design, RDK Engineers, TFMoran and Berkshire Design.

Prior to construction, Cutler, an East Coast design-build and construction management firm, worked with Five Colleges and CSL on site selection. The design-build team then spent 12 months building the new 35,000-square-foot, climate-controlled library storage facility on a 12-acre parcel in Hatfield. The design provides for 9,000 square feet of processing, meeting and office space, and 26,000 square feet of storage space outfitted with the capacity to house 2.5 million volumes.

The annex, which is at the junctions of the Interstate 91 Exit 22 ramp, West Street (Routes US 5 and MA 10) and Plain Road, formally opened in May.

Neal Abraham, executive director of Five Colleges, said, “Given the complexities of the site prep work and sophisticated building systems necessary for achieving the strict control of temperature and humidity, we are thrilled that the facility was completed on schedule and well under budget.”

The Annex will provide shelving for items from the Five College Repository Collection and from libraries of the campuses of the consortium—Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst—freeing up space on the campuses for new materials and other academic needs.

In addition, it will serve as a temporary home for much of the collection of Smith College’s Neilson Library while it undergoes a major renovation.

DBIA defines, teaches and promotes best practices in design-build, an integrated approach that delivers design and construction services under one contract with a single point of responsibility.