UMass Boston Tops Off Integrated Sciences Complex Construction

Less than nine months after its official groundbreaking, students, faculty, and staff looked to the sky February 16 as a steel beam bearing their signatures was hoisted to the top of the Integrated Sciences Complex (ISC) as part of the building's topping off ceremony.

The topping off of a construction project is a ceremonial event marking the end of steel construction by putting into place a final, signed beam.

UMass Boston Chancellor J. Keith Motley was joined by Commissioner Carole Cornelison of the Division of Capital Asset Management; state representatives Marty Walsh and Linda Dorcena Forry; Boston City Councilor Frank Baker; and Richard Walsh, president of Walsh Brothers Construction, among other community leaders to mark this milestone in the construction phase of the $155 million ISC.

“Here we are, ahead of schedule, moving forward in a way that's amazing,” Chancellor Motley told the crowd. “We’re celebrating the future of this building. We’re celebrating what it means for us as a university. This is a tremendous gift to the future.”

The six-story building is set to open in fall 2013 at the entrance of the Columbia Point campus and will house state-of-the-art research, teaching, and training laboratories.

"This is the moment when you can finally see the product of a long journey," said Commissioner Cornelison. "This is a very important significant milestone for this particular building."

Before the topping off ceremony, more than 500 faculty, students, staff, and guests autographed the steel beam that was hoisted into place to represent the last of 2,000 tons of structural steel used in the 220,000-square-foot building’s frame. Even UMass President Robert Caret made a stop by campus to sign the beam earlier in the day, writing, "The future looks bright!"

"Your autograph will go down in history," Chancellor Motley said.

The Integrated Sciences Complex will be UMass Boston’s first new academic building since the campus was completed in 1974. The ISC will include wet and dry research laboratories and support space, undergraduate Biology teaching labs, an infant cognition lab, and two new research centers—the Developmental Sciences Research Center and the Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy.

"The construction of the Integrated Science Complex represents a movement; creating the facilities that our students deserve," said student government president Travis Henderson.  "We already have the hardest working, most dedicated student body imaginable; with the construction of the Integrated Science Complex we continue the process of providing the facilities to match."

Deigned by the Boston-based architectural firm Goody Clancy, the ISC is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the UMass Building Authority, and MassDevelopment. The project is managed by the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management and is being constructed by Walsh Brothers.

"Students, this building is for you," Richard Walsh said.

Watch video from the topping off ceremony. Check out photos of people signing the beam and from the ceremony. Watch the progress on the ISC webcam.