🔒Roux with a view: Consigli takes on challenge of building Roux Institute campus

Building Northeastern University’s Roux Institute campus, perched on the edge of Casco Bay in Portland, is a complex — and exciting — project for the team at Consigli Construction. Project executive Andrew Rouille is co-steering the build from the firm’s Portland office with senior project manager Christina Consigli and Matt Tonello, principal in charge. “It checks all the boxes when it comes to complex construction elements,” Rouille tells Mainebiz. “It’s a unique, curved, cantilever building — on the water — with a mass timber section and geothermal wells, plus a pier and an historic restoration to the former [B&M Baked Beans] building … It’s a lot of building elements that we’ve done on other projects, all combined on one site.” Consigli adds: “We like complex, complicated projects; they’re hard but fun.” The campus will include three buildings to start; a residence hall and a hotel may be added in the future. The largest structure will be the 245,000-square-foot Alfond Center, which, when completed in 2027, will be the institute’s academic hub for an anticipated 3,500 graduate students. It will house classrooms, labs and research spaces.

The Roux Institute was launched in 2020, driven in part by a $100 million investment from technology entrepreneur David Roux and his wife, Barbara Roux. The institute currently leases space at 100 Fore St. in Portland from WEX Inc.

Waterside considerations

Work on the new campus got underway in 2022, but before construction could begin on the Alfond Center in 2024 the site’s waterfront location necessitated a grade increase to 22.5 feet above sea level — a safeguard against storms and the anticipated rising waters that climate change might bring. Each of the footings that anchor the steel, glass and concrete structure into bedrock are three to four feet in diameter. “The technique is not typical for Maine,” Rouille says. “It’s mostly used for bridges. It’s pretty unique.” With its futuristic shape, the evolving seven-story Alfond Center is a commanding presence on the 13.5-acre site, visible from Portland’s East End and from nearby I-295. The plastic sheeting currently seen wrapping the steel frame is helping the building hold some heat during a remarkably cold Maine winter. “We’re blowing heat in, to get the temperature up to 40 degrees so we can install the cast-in-place concrete decks,” says Consigli. The concrete decks will be brought in by truck and cast into place. When completed, the building will be heated and cooled by geothermal wells and air- and water-source heat pumps. It’s designed to target net-zero operations, which run on electric systems. The geothermal wells were drilled by Tewksbury, Mass.-based Ogden Wells, one of close to 50 subcontractors involved in the project. Ogden drilled 83 individual six-inch-wide wells, 800 feet into the ground. “You go through groundwater way down deep into rock,” Rouille explains. It’s the largest ground source heat exchange system in Maine.

A mass timber wing

Consigli is building a three-story mass timber section onto the Alfond Center, which will feature a 12,000-square-foot green rooftop terrace, one of several design choices aimed at deflecting excessive solar heat absorption into the building. Mass timber is an advanced building material that is considered more carbon neutral than steel in its production and generates fewer emissions during and after construction. Sustainability is a priority for the entire project and a hallmark for the Massachusetts-based design team, CambridgeSeven. Mass timber components are being used in buildings all over the world but have only recently been adopted for use in Maine. Consigli has been an early adopter, using it in a number of its projects in the state and beyond.

A project team of hundreds

Including the firm’s in-house trades team, there are currently 200 crew members working on site. “Once we start the interior work, there will be up to 300 on site,” says Consigli. The former baked bean factory — which is 58,000 square feet and dates to 1913 — will be repurposed to provide workspaces for startups and businesses supporting innovation and entrepreneurship. Rouille says the Consigli team started work on that building in 2023, clearing out the interior. “We’ll be doing a full historic restoration project on the building, including a new roof, new windows,” he says. “Everything regarding exterior design has to go through the Portland Historic Preservation Board. That’s in the design and development phase now, being handled by Bruner/Cott Architects out of Boston.” A third building on the site, nearly complete, is a seven-story, 630-car parking garage, constructed with concrete panels fabricated at Dailey Precast of Shaftsbury, Vt. The 240,000-square-foot building will be wrapped with metal panels and fabric scrim, which is largely an aesthetic choice but will also provide shading and increase ventilation. “We’re now doing all the interiors of the garage,” Rouille says. “Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and we’ll be installing eight ‘curtainwalls’ for the stair corridors, made from glass and aluminum.” A curtainwall is a prefabricated panel attached to the exterior of a structure which dramatically reduces construction time over traditional window installation. “It’s usually used when you have a lot of glass and you need taller spans,” says Rouille. “The curtain walls for the garage will be 90 feet high, all the way up to the roof.” The panels for the garage come from Ipswich Bay Glass, in Rowley, Mass. The curtainwalls that will wrap the entirety of the Alfond Center are being prefabricated by Permasteelisa Group in Vittorio Veneto, Italy, and Wurzburg, Germany. Specialists from one of the company’s Connecticut offices will handle the install. “It’s a highly custom product,” Rouille says. “There isn’t any place in the U.S. that really does it at this scale.” Installed with the portions of the curtainwall will be 275 tons of granite slabs from Freshwater Stone in Orland. “It’s really just aesthetic,” Rouille says. “A cool local element incorporated into the building.”

Other amenities

The campus will include a 8,000-square-foot child care center attached to the garage, the exterior of which is expected to be completed this spring. An additional piece of the project will be a pier to potentially facilitate water-borne commuters from the city and for student kayaking activities. The rest of the site, which had been nearly completely covered in pavement, will be re-landscaped to include trails, native plantings and outdoor seating. Cambridge, Mass.-based Stephen Stimson Associates is the design lead. Consigli says construction on the $500 million campus will wrap up in 2027. Northeastern plans to welcome students for the spring 2028 semester. Consigli, which is based in Milford, Mass., has worked on a number of projects of this scope. “For the company as a whole it’s typical,” Rouille says. “But it’s atypical for Portland and for Maine.” Christina Consigli adds: “We look at this project as a community placemaking structure. And it holds a special place in our hearts because we live here.”