Boston, MA––July 3, 2007 — Shawmut Design and Construction, a $700 million national construction management firm, recently moved three historic structures on the Harvard Law School campus.
Shawmut, in collaboration with Harvard Law School, the City of Cambridge, Davis Building Movers, and Austin Architects, placed the Ukrainian, Baker, and Carriage houses on hydraulic dollies and moved them from the corner of Jarvis Street and Massachusetts Avenue to their new site at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Mellen Street.
At 6 p.m. on June 22, a small section of Massachusetts Avenue was blocked off to allow the project team to transport the houses at walking speed to their new site. To allow ample room along the route, street lights, parking meters, signs, traffic signals, and MBTA overhead bus lines were temporarily removed and later reinstalled.
The project team worked meticulously with Harvard Law School, MBTA, and City of Cambridge Police, Fire, and Traffic, Parking, and Transportation Department officials to develop an extensive plan to ensure the safety of the general public and the project workers. During the move, Shawmut had three safety officers on-site to implement the plan, which consisted of redundant safety systems and protective measures including complete containment of the houses and their contents, safe public access and controlled access zoning, public and traffic barrier protection, street and route detour systems, and police and emergency response details positioned throughout the project boundaries.
The team began moving the first house at 5 a.m. on Saturday, June 23 and by 9:30 a.m. all three structures were resting at their final destination. The entire move was completed so quickly that Massachusetts Avenue, which was slated to remain closed until the morning of Monday, June 25, was re-opened to traffic 36 hours ahead of schedule.
The relocation of the three houses makes way for the construction of Harvard Law School’s Northwest Corner project – a new 250,000 square foot academic complex. Extensive measures were taken to move the houses, rather than demolish them, because of their historic nature and status as part of the fabric of the community.
Shawmut Design and Construction has extensive experience protecting and preserving historic structures in Cambridge and throughout New England. Over the course of its 15 year relationship with Harvard University, Shawmut has completed over 100 projects within historic buildings on Harvard’s various campuses, including the relocation and renovation of the historic Palfrey House, located just blocks away from the site of the Harvard Law School project.
Shawmut’s extensive historic preservation experience was bolstered by its partnership with Davis Building Movers – one of the Northeast’s preeminent building movers. Davis brought over 30 years of building and house relocation experience, as well as an exemplary safety record, to the Harvard Law School project. For more information regarding Davis’ experience and portfolio, please visit www.davisbuildingmovers.com.
Click here to view Harvard Law School's audio slideshow
Click here to view a time lapse video of the move
Click here to view an interview with Project Manager Chris Semlies
