MassArt, the nation’s first and leading public school of art and design, commissioned this challenging project to expand its urban campus and house its growing student body. Financed and constructed by the Massachusetts State College Building Authority (MSCBA), the building is sited immediately adjacent to a major network of underground sewage culverts requiring an easement.

In order to meet the project goal of 500 beds, the design team conceived an elegant 21-story building that curves around and cantilevers out over the easement. Odeh Engineers used a steel truss system to create the cantilevers. A braced frame system, using hat trusses at the roof level, controls wind loads predicted in wind tunnel testing.