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Tunxis Community College
 Architect
Du Bose Associates, Inc. Architects
49 Woodland Street, Hartford, CT 06105
www.dbarch.com
General Description
Location: Farmington, Connecticut
Date Bid: June 2005
Construction Period: Jan 2006 to July 2008
Number of Buildings: One.
Basic Construction Type: 2C/New.
Foundation: Cast-in-place, reinforced concrete,
slab-on-grade. Exterior Walls: Masonry, brick, CMU, wall panels.
Roof: Metal, membrane. Floors: Composite concrete, metal
deck.
Interior Walls: Metal stud drywall.
Projected and/or modeled energy usage: 65 KBTU/SF/yr.
Building 600
Total Square Feet:
62,781 Site: 13 acres.
Building Size: First floor, 36,868; second floor, 25,913; total,
62,781 square feet.
Building Height: First floor, 15’4”; second floor, 15’4”; total,
51’2”.
Building 700
Total Square Feet: 38,087 Site: 13 acres.
Building Size: First floor, 20,589; second floor, 17,498; total,
38,087 square feet.
Building Height: First floor, 15’4”; second floor, 15’4”; total,
44’.
Construction Team
Structural Engineer: Macchi Engineers, LLC - 44 Gillett Street,
Hartford, CT 06105
General Contractor: M.A. Angeliades, Inc. - 5-44 47th Avenue,
Long Island City, NY 11101
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer: Diversified Technology
Consultants, Inc. - 2321 Whitney Avenue, #301, Hamden, CT 06518
Cost Estimator: Leach Consulting Company, LLC - 1010 Wethersfield
Avenue, #306, Hartford, CT 06114
Construction Administrator: FIP Construction, Inc. 10 McKee
Place, Cheshire, CT 06410
This project consists of 100,000 square feet of additions to the
existing Tunxis Community College in Farmington, Conn. located at the
intersection of Routes 177 and 6. The obstacles to overcome to bring the
project to fruition were many. The Master Plan of 2001 identified the
fact that the College's facilities in relation to its Full Time
Equivalent Student Body were among the most inadequate of all the
Community Colleges in New England.
The college, a former shopping mall, had limited space for expansion and
the back of the college faced a bustling Rt. 6 and Rt. 177, making the
College virtually invisible to the community. The architectural solution
to these issues was to wrap the Rt. 6 and Rt. 177 sides of the campus
with a dynamic new facility, which leverages form and transparency to
create both a new sense of place for the college and a window into the
college for the community.
The $26.5 million of addition to Tunxis Community College includes: 1)
The "700" Building with a new stand alone library which has "state of
the art" technology, ample attractive reading and study spaces to
encourage students to stay on campus and interact with one another, a
"sidewalk cafe" with casual dining options and opportunities to see and
be seen, and a community meeting facility for 100+ people; and 2) The
"600" Building a new structure with a lively facade facing Rt. 6 and
wrapping the north and west side of the original college building
provides classrooms, student services, offices, state of the art
physics, chemistry, biology, dental, and art labs, as well as an art
gallery and a "cyber cafe" facing the intersection. All of these spaces
serve to more adequately support the College's mission. Large Expanses
of glass at key circulation junctions within the facility provide
tantalizing views into the heart of the college from the community.
The design also sought to create a "Sense of Place" that was inviting
enough to keep students on campus, particularly through the use of
comfortable "Informal Learning Spaces" located throughout the new
addition.
The Tunxis Community College architecture draws on several local
vernacular themes. The pitch roof forms relate to the buildings in the
early industrial mills that defined the landscape of the Farmington
River Valley. In addition, the building draws contemporary allusions to
the Greek Revival forms of early New England Academia to create an
architectural vocabulary that is rooted in tradition but is also
contemporary in spirit, simultaneously warm and familiar in texture and
feel but forward looking and energetic in execution. "Tunxis is the
local Native American word for - Bend in The River" and this theme is
played out in the shape of the addition, the canyon-like feel of the
circulation spines and through lighting layouts and floor patterns.
Manufacturers
DIV. 7: Metal Panels: Alucobond, Imetco; Metal Roofing:
Imetco; Membrane: Carlisle.
DIV. 8: Curtainwall, Entrances & Storefronts: EFCO
Corporation; Window: Graham.
DIV. 9: Acoustical: Armstrong, USG.
DIV. 14: Elevators: ThyssenKrupp.
DIV. 22: Waterless Urinals: Falcon Waterfree; Plumbing
Fixtures: Toto, Sloan, Mansfield.
DIV. 26: T-8 Bulbs: Philips; Daylight Harvesting
Ballasts: Axis Ballasts.
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