37 Hillhouse Avenue

The project scope includes a significant addition to, and gut renovation of, an existing historic building constructed in 1866. The existing building is known as the Graves-Gilman House, a 10,182 square foot brick and stucco Italianate villa listed as a contributing structure to the Hillhouse Avenue National Historic District. The addition, constructed of CLT, increased the GSF area to 17,750 square feet. The project will contain faculty and student offices; linguistics laboratories; and meeting spaces.

The design shifts the primary entrance for the building to the new addition, thus allowing handicapped accessibility from the street without resorting to ungainly ramps, and includes an elevator and accessible facilities throughout the building.

The Project included complete replacement all MEPF systems in the existing building. It achieved LEED Gold, as intended, with an all-electric, high-performance building targeting an Energy Utilization Index (EUI) of 29. The design leveraged not only energy efficiency, but materials sustainability and biophilic design, as well as other strategies, to achieve this goal.

A notable feature of the building is the second egress stair, which was required due to the increased occupancy. The stair was constructed primarily of CLT (and provides an immersive aesthetic experience of the exposed CLT wood. The design relied on the robust fire resistance ratings provided by CLT panels to meet the required fire separation for both the egress stair and the elevator shaft.