Overview

LiRo-Hill provided project management services to support new and renovated facilities for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMD) School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) and the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF). SMAST comprises the Marine Science campus of UMD, including the Department of Fisheries Oceanography and Department of Estuarine and Ocean Sciences.

About the Project

SMAST occupied approximately 32,500 sf of the existing SMAST facility (referred to as SMAST 1) in New Bedford and, after outgrowing the available space, an additional 12,000 sf of leased, off-site space in Fairhaven, MA. This project consolidated the two locations and created a cohesive campus for the SMAST programs.

LiRo-Hill’s services included design management, construction, commissioning, occupancy, and close-out of the project. The scope of work included demolition of the existing Naval Reserve Center (NRC) building on an adjacent parcel; construction of a new 64,500 sf “SMAST 2” building on the NRC site; limited, high-priority renovations at the existing SMAST 1 building; and site/landscape and utility work required to combine the sites into an integrated SMAST Campus. The new 64,500 sf SMAST 2 building at the NRC site included flexible wet/dry research labs and research offices, computational research labs, flexible classroom space that can be used for SMAST public outreach programs, a seawater research facility, administration space, and DMF offices and a dive-gear program.