ACEC/MA 2024 Engineering Excellence Award Gala

F&T attended the ACEC/MA 2024 Engineering Excellence Award Gala last week, where we took home the bronze Engineering Excellence Award for the Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) new Center for Inpatient Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. The ACEC/MA Engineering Excellence Awards recognizes engineering achievements that demonstrate the highest degree of merit and ingenuity. 

Photo, right to left: Jason Butler (Fitzemeyer & Tocci), Joan Eagleson (Lavallee), Alison Brisson (Cambridge Health Alliance), Scott LeClair (Fitzemeyer & Tocci).  

About the Project:  

The Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) new Center for Inpatient Child & Adolescent Psychiatry adds 69 new child, adolescent (aged 3-17), and specialized youth neurodevelopmental beds to the Somerville campus. The new 60,800 square foot center provides a safe and supportive environment across 5 floors where children can receive the care they need to stabilize and begin the path to recovery, while also receiving education and support for their families.  

The mission of the project was to expeditiously transform the campus by renovating 5 existing floors to provide 69 patient beds and a food service cafeteria. The 5-phase project provided urgent, incremental bed capacity in a 24x7 operating hospital in a tight urban residential neighborhood. The units are specially designed to provide a caring and calming setting for young people with acute behavioral health needs. Each unit features warm colors, natural light, many private rooms, group space and open-air space – all intended to facilitate treatment while maximizing patient and staff safety, including unique specialty needs such as ligature-resistant features.  F&T proudly provided MEP/FP engineering and construction administration for the exciting project.