On June 11, the Beauport Hotel had its soft opening. The 115,000-sf facility, on the seacoast of Gloucester, Mass, is this city’s first full-service hotel. It features the largest meeting and conference space on Cape Ann, capable of handling gatherings up to 400 people; and a 3,327-sf grand ballroom that can accommodate up to 325 guests.
Located on a two-acre footprint on Pavilion Beach, Beauport Hotel, with 94 guest rooms and suites, sits where once was a fish fillet flash-freezing plant owned by Clarence Birdseye, but had been closed since 2003. The development group Beauport Gloucester LLC that includes New Balance Athletics’ chairman Jim Davis and is led by local developer Sheree Zizik, reportedly paid $6.5 million to purchase this property in 2012. The investors saw the transformation of this building as a catalyst for reshaping the identity of Gloucester’s future from a New England fishing town into a bustling and economically vibrant city.
Gloucester’s former Mayor Carolyn Kirk (who is now the deputy secretary of Massachusetts' office of housing and economic development) and its City Council backed this $50 million-plus design-build project, and the site’s rezoning dates back to 2008. But it took six years to get the hotel to the finish line, mainly because local residents who opposed the hotel wanted this site to be used instead to preserve seafood processing and other fishing-related activities.
What appears to have turned the community around was the outreach efforts by Lee Dellicker, president and CEO of Windover Construction, the project’s GC and Construction Manager. After listening to the community’s concerns, his firm agreed to pull back the building from the street, modify the seawall and curbing, and eliminate a walkway to the beach.
To allay fears about construction-related noise and traffic, Windover held regular meetings to keep the community abreast of activities. Police details monitored and managed traffic and deliveries to minimize disruption.
Windover had been involved in the hotel’s development from the early stages of property acquisition and permitting. It was responsible for pre-planning, budgeting, design, scheduling, and hiring the architectural and interior design team. It also managed procurement.
The Building Team included Olson Lewis + Architects (architect), Niemitz Design Group (interior design), Roy Spittle Associates (EE), Superior Plumbing & Heating (ME), Odeh Engineers (SE), GS Associates (FF&E consultant), and Beals Engineering (CE).
The 115,000-sf Beauport Hotel includes more than 10,000 sf of event space, the most of any facility on Cape Ann. Image: Peter Vanderwarker Photography
Demolition of the Birdseye plant began in June 2014, and the hotel broke ground the following November. Key construction aspects included erecting a 240-foot seawall along Pavilion Beach to protect the site from ocean flooding. The four-story hotel used podium construction, with structural steel for the lower two levels and wood framing for the upper two, raising the hotel’s main floor, at 14 feet above the ground, higher than flood level.
Beauport Hotel’s architectural design recalls the grand shingle style hotels that once occupied Gloucester’s coastline at the turn of the century. And any guest who wants a reminder of Gloucester’s past needs to look no further than next store, to Mortillaro’s Lobster Co., which annually ships close to five million pounds of live lobsters throughout the world.
Related Stories
| Oct 16, 2014
Perkins+Will white paper examines alternatives to flame retardant building materials
The white paper includes a list of 193 flame retardants, including 29 discovered in building and household products, 50 found in the indoor environment, and 33 in human blood, milk, and tissues.
| Oct 15, 2014
Harvard launches ‘design-centric’ center for green buildings and cities
The impetus behind Harvard's Center for Green Buildings and Cities is what the design school’s dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, describes as a “rapidly urbanizing global economy,” in which cities are building new structures “on a massive scale.”
| Oct 12, 2014
AIA 2030 commitment: Five years on, are we any closer to net-zero?
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the American Institute of Architects’ effort to have architecture firms voluntarily pledge net-zero energy design for all their buildings by 2030.
| Sep 24, 2014
Must see: Semi-submerged hotel planned for Qatar's man-made island
Plans for a new hotel in the Persian Gulf are taking Dubai’s Palm Islands concept to a whole new level—underwater, that is.
| Sep 24, 2014
Architecture billings see continued strength, led by institutional sector
On the heels of recording its strongest pace of growth since 2007, there continues to be an increasing level of demand for design services signaled in the latest Architecture Billings Index.
| Sep 22, 2014
4 keys to effective post-occupancy evaluations
Perkins+Will's Janice Barnes covers the four steps that designers should take to create POEs that provide design direction and measure design effectiveness.
| Sep 22, 2014
Sound selections: 12 great choices for ceilings and acoustical walls
From metal mesh panels to concealed-suspension ceilings, here's our roundup of the latest acoustical ceiling and wall products.
| Sep 16, 2014
Ranked: Top hotel sector AEC firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Tutor Perini, Gensler, and AECOM top BD+C's rankings of design and construction firms with the most revenue from hospitality sector projects, as reported in the 2014 Giants 300 Report.
| Sep 15, 2014
Ranked: Top international AEC firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Parsons Brinckerhoff, Gensler, and Jacobs top BD+C's rankings of U.S.-based design and construction firms with the most revenue from international projects, as reported in the 2014 Giants 300 Report.
| Sep 15, 2014
Argentina reveals plans for Latin America’s tallest structure
Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announces the winning design by MRA+A Álvarez | Bernabó | Sabatini for the capital's new miexed use tower.
