Tufts University Upper Class Student Housing

Medford, MA

Tufts University, like many of the Boston area Schools, has a need for student housing to allow students to be as close to campus as possible as well as to reduce the strain on available rental housing in the Medford and Somerville communities in which it resides. The project completed creates three different wood frame structures equipped with common areas with kitchens for upper-class student. The smaller scale dormitories, around thirty students each, were developed to include a significant number of fully accessible residences.

Another main objective from Tufts was to create structures that complied with the Passive House Energy requirements to meet a University mandate to become carbon-neutral by the year 2050. To this end, the Design-Build Team with Bowdoin Construction worked with Bensonwood Homes that panelized the skin of the building. This allowed the structure to control the significant insulation requirements, coordinate any thru-wall penetrations, and install windows in the controlled factory environment. The added benefit was to enable the buildings to be erected in several weeks, with little to no construction waste on urban sites with little room for construction staging. The project was completed in 2024.