Location: 
North Attleboro, Massachusetts
Total Square Feet: 90,000
Construction Period: Mar 1999 to Sep 1999

Construction Team
General Contractor: Unistress Corporation - 550 Cheshire Road, Pittsfield, MA 02101
Structural Engineer: Victor Stango Consulting Engineer - 106 Spring Ave., Chestertown, MD 21620
Electrical Engineer: Preferred Electrical Corp. - 128 New Boston St., Woburn, MA 01801
Mechanical Engineer: John Marandola Plumbing & Heating - 24 Minnesota Ave., Warwick, RI 02888
Construction Consultant: Development Advisors - One Wells Ave., Newton, MA 02459

Emerald Square is a three-level, super-regional enclosed shopping mall located in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. When one of its anchor department stores expanded, the owners of the ten-year-old property identified the need for an additional covered parking structure (two were produced and erected by Unistress Corporation of Pittsfield, Mass. as part of the original construction). At the time, the mall was owned by New England Development Company, but has since become a Simon property.

New England Development had previously hired Unistress through a general contractor to provide precast concrete for the two original decks. But this time, the owners turned directly to Unistress and to the architects Carter & Burgess, Inc., formerly Sumner Schein Architects & Engineers of Cambridge.

The new project was a single-level structure consisting of one deck plus parking on grade. Working in partnership, Carter & Burgess, Inc. and Unistress collaborated on the architectural details and appearance of the existing structures, including replicating the design of the exterior with a light sandblast and a large bull-nose profile at the top.

The spandrels blend easily with the mall structure itself, whose facade features column-supported, rather than bearing architectural precast wall panels. The spandrels were then finished with white architectural concrete, combined with some light salmon-colored architectural details. The architect/precast team also delivered enhanced lighting levels in order to boost the sense of security experienced by the largely female shopping population. They also succeeded in keeping stair towers as open and airy as possible.

Largely due to the controlled production conditions at the Unistress plant, the project proceeded ahead of schedule - construction was completed by September 1, 1999. 

The project was not without its share of challenges. Among them was creating a raised sidewalk with a landing on a straight slope ramp in order to meet code requirements for a curbed and handicapped accessible walkway. The site itself was sloped - shoppers enter the front of the mall on the lowest level. In the back corner, where the parking deck is located, grade level parking is coincident with the third mall level, avoiding the need for any bridge connections to the mall.

Manufacturers/Suppliers
Exterior Walls - Precast Wall Panels: Unistress Corp.
Roof - Canopy: Sunbrella Fabric Canopies.
Floors - Precast/Prestressed Double Tees: Unistress Corp.