Client and Collaborators

Architect:
William Rawn & Associates, Architects
General Contractor:
Lee Kennedy Co. Inc.
Owner/Developer:
Berklee College of Music

A prominent multipurpose tower serving Berklee College of Music students and the surrounding community.

Located at the intersection of Boylston Street and Massachusetts Avenue, this multi-use building strengthens Berklee College of Music’s connections to the city of Boston through a transparent podium facade, revealing the life inside while creating an active urban street edge. The tower includes freshman student housing, music technology studios, gathering spaces, and a 400-seat, 2-story dining hall that doubles as a student performance venue overlooking the street. The building also contains ground-floor retail. 

The facade blends architectural language created by William Rawn Associates with an enclosure system designed for efficient production and delivery. A custom-extruded aluminum cladding module creates a crisp, corrugated rainscreen with punched windows simulating a "divided lite” effect, resulting in multiple layers of depth across the building envelope. A serrated building plan required careful coordination of embedded structural components to allow for ease of installation once the megapanel system was ready.  

For this scope of work, Island served as the completion subcontractor, adding to the complexity of the project’s delivery. Island inherited an existing facade design and supply-chain, as well as a challenging construction schedule—requiring the dedication of multiple assembly lines to recover valuable time on the site. The “large-format" panels were fabricated and inspected at our New York facilities prior to installation with the project’s existing superstructure crane, allowing for rapid enclosure of the facade scope.  

Project Information:

• Year Completed: 2013

• Certification: LEED Gold

• Island Services Provided:

  • Completion Contractor (Fabrication & Installation)
    

Learn More:

• Architect, 160 Massachusetts Avenue Tower