BCC On Final Stretch of $10M UpgradesBy Brittany Polito, iBerkshires Staff
05:19AM / Monday, November 13, 2023 | |
 The quad at Berkshire Community College is being revamped as a part of campuswide improvements. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire Community College hopes to have a majority of its multimillion dollar campus improvements completed by the end of the month.
Students and staff may have noticed various construction areas at BCC over the last year. These include upgrades to the Boland Theater lobby, exterior pavers, the quad, windows, electrical switchgear, and underground infrastructure such as sanitary and stormwater drainage lines.
"We have been very busy for the past couple of years in planning what turned out to be a $10 million critical infrastructure improvement project," Director of Facilities Christopher DeGray said at the BCC trustees' September meeting.
The end result is an updated, remediated, and accessible campus to meet growing demands for higher education. It is supported by state funds allocated by the Baker-Polito administration.
The college received $10 million through then Gov. Charlie Baker's new Critical Building Infrastructure Program to support window replacement at the Koussevitzky Arts Center and Jonathan Edwards Library buildings, including the removal of caulking containing PCBs to comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requirements. The funds are provided through An Act Providing for Capital Facility Repairs and Improvements for the Commonwealth, a $3.9 billion capital bond bill passed in 2018.
The pollutants were discovered while making exterior building repairs over a decade ago and BCC has been working with the Division of Capital Assets Management and Maintenance and the EPA to address the problem since.
The Boland Theater lobby got a modern upgrade with a new concrete floor, doors, windows, tiles, and a modern paint job; the quad will have new concrete walls and footings, lights, handrails, and landscaping; various windows have been replaced; and there have been electrical upgrades in a number of buildings.
"Luckily, we are on the tail end of this," DeGray said. "We're hoping to have 99 percent of these projects wrapped up before Thanksgiving."
He pointed to increases in enrollment that were reported earlier in the meeting, explaining that the quad needs to be a welcoming and accessible entrance to the campus.
"What we're always trying to do is make it more accessible and this quad is kind of going to be our front door of the campus," he added.
It was announced that the college is receiving $315,000 from DCAMM to upgrade, replace, and make repairs to the campus solar panel infrastructure, which DeGray said is a great benefit.
President Ellen Kennedy said she was incredibly grateful to the facilities team for making the projects happen.
"We all just want to tip our hat because this has been a moving target for dates and equipment and things arriving and trying to meet the needs of our growing and expanding campus," she said. "But also finding ways to wayfind on this campus."
There was also appreciation shown for the staff and students' flexibility during the construction.
Over the summer, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll took a tour of BCC's One Stop Center for student services, the Berkshire Science Commons maker space, BCC's nursing labs, and renovations to the Hawthorne and Melville halls.
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