A new mass timber academic design for Bowdoin College from HGA has been unveiled for the first time following the project’s completion earlier this year in Brunswick, Maine.

The Barry Mills Hall and the John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies project called for the construction of two opposing asymmetrical structures totaling 46,000 square feet to be used as educational and art exhibition spaces for students on the 207-acre campus.

“This project was an opportunity for Bowdoin to further demonstrate their commitment to sustainability, not only through high-performance buildings but also by investing in generous, flexible learning, teaching, and research spaces,” Rebecca Celis, principal and arts, community and education sector leader at HGA, says of the design. “These buildings will grow Bowdoin’s education and research capabilities while embracing the college’s environmental ethos.”

The campus red Mills Hall design is set to host the college’s Computational Studies and Anthropology departments and features a 60-seat cinema, four classrooms, space for 12 faculty offices, and a vaulted event venue with a capacity for 300 persons. 

Its opposite, the mottled black Gibbons Center, houses the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, an archeology lab, and additional classroom spaces. Both feature pitched rooflines that provide a distinctive character on top of the jagged and glacial-like massing, a naturalistic pattern that is again repeated in the mounded landscape design of the exterior courtyard spaces.   

“Ice flows” created by the installation of local granite pavers guide the pedestrian flow through the site, which anchors the southeastern corner of campus and is framed by a preserved grove of white pine trees. 

HGA says the high-performance envelopes of both structures will combine with the mass timber used in their structural systems to reduce the embodied carbon footprint of the project by some 75 percent. The all-electric development is also powered without the use of any fossil fuels. Bowdoin College considers itself to be a nationwide leader in sustainable campus planning and will likewise use recent institutional investments in renewables both on- and off-campus to power 100 percent of its operation.

New England regional mainstay Consigli Construction also contributed its expertise to the realization of the project, expanding on a portfolio that will soon include a forthcoming life sciences building in the Boston area designed by SGA.

“Bowdoin, Consigli, and HGA were motivated to pursue timber both for its environmental benefits, and for Maine’s cultural identity as a ‘working forest,’ and the potential for positive economic impact within the region,” Matt Orlando, Bowdoin’s senior vice president for finance and administration said finally. “This project moves us forward on the path towards being fossil fuel free on campus, but it’s also a way to showcase mass timber and sustainable design for Maine.”