Mayor Menino Joins Roxbury Community to Raise Final Piece of Steel at Dudley Municipal Center
Jun 25, 2013
“Topping Off Ceremony” Celebrates Major Milestone in Construction Project and the Progress of Mayor’s Vision for Dudley Square Neighborhood
Mayor Menino, City and elected officials, community leaders, and members of Roxbury's building trades celebrated the topping off of the Ferdinand Building in Dudley Square. The ceremony represents a major milestone for the $115 million Dudley Municipal Center, which is on budget and expected to be completed by January 2015. With the final beam in place, workers will begin the next phase of construction for the new community space.
“What’s happened in this neighborhood and what will continue to happen is one of the things I’m most proud of. But our work is far from done,” Mayor Menino said. “From the beginning our goal has been simple: bring more people and economic life to historic Dudley Square. And that is a job that never ends.”
The Dudley Municipal Center will house an estimated 500 municipal employees from the Boston Public School Department and will include open space for student work, school events, and community gatherings to better serve the neighborhood's public schools. The facility will also include street-level space for retail.
The 6 floors will incorporate the Ferdinand’s Furniture Building, the Curtis Block, and the Waterman & Sons building creating 215,000 SF of office space. In keeping with the City of Boston’s commitment to preserving the environment, the new structure will earn a LEED Silver Certification, an award reserved for buildings that meet certain sustainability criteria.
The City of Boston, the Property and Construction Management Department, and the BRA have been working collaboratively to develop this project with the local community and historic preservationists.
Project coordinators have enlisted the services of an Owner’s Project Manager from Braintree-based PMA Consultants in an effort to provide transparency and accountability to Boston taxpayers. The project is being developed with Shawmut Construction through the CM-At-Risk method of public project development, which involves the construction management firm early in the design process in order to deliver the job within a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP). This method will allow for timely, quality, and phased construction. Working in close collaboration with the community, the re-development of the Ferdinand site is a partnership between local and internationally respected design firms Sasaki and Mecanoo.
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