WCMA to Hold Community Forum on New Museum Building's Sustainability Goals

Print Story | Email Story
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) will host a community forum regarding its new museum building project on Monday, April 28, at 6:00 p.m. 
 
The event will be held at the Williams Inn Ballroom.
 
The forum will focus on the sustainability objectives of the new building, featuring presentations on the Williams College Sustainable Project Policy and the planned sustainable design features of the new WCMA. These features include the aim to meet the Living Building Challenge of the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) and the use of mass timber for the building's structural components.
 
The event will also provide general updates on the ongoing construction project and include a question-and-answer session for the audience.
 
The new Williams College Museum of Art is intended to serve Williams College, the local community, and visitors to the Berkshires. The design of the new museum is reportedly student-focused, aiming to create a sense of belonging for campus members and the wider community, and an inclusive experience for all visitors. The building will offer increased gallery space for displaying more of the museum’s 15,000-piece collection, as well as facilities for improved access to collections for student, faculty, and visiting scholar requests, and additional object study classrooms.
 
Those interested in attending are encouraged to RSVP at https://forms.office.com/e/qA3KnFizyp.
 
Further information can be found at artmuseum.williams.edu.
 
 

Tags: WCMA,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Williamstown Planners Finalizing Draft of New Subdivision Bylaw

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board last week gave its final direction to the consultants hired to help the panel rewrite the town's subdivision control bylaw.
 
The town's contract with Northampton's Dodson and Flinker Landscape Architecture and Planning, which is funded by a state grant, expires on June 30, and the consultant is set to deliver a draft document in early July.
 
Last Tuesday, the board reviewed the latest progress from the consultant and considered some of the points discussed at its final, lengthy, video conference with Dodson and Flinker and its team on May 26.
 
Ultimately, plans to take the final draft and make any last decisions before presenting it to the town for a public hearing and adoption by the Planning Board later this year. Its goal has been to make the subdivision bylaw easier to navigate and more contemporary in order to encourage economic development.
 
At Tuesday's regular monthly meeting, Planning Board Chair Kenneth Kuttner told his colleagues he felt a lot of the issues were resolved at the May 26 session, including the development of a regulatory regime that ties infrastructure requirements to the size of a proposed development.
 
He also said he thought Dodson and Flinker's proposed language properly distinguishes between proposed developments in the town's core and those proposed in its rural residential districts.
 
"The thing they suggested, which I thought was interesting, was the 'payment in lieu of' for things like sidewalks in the rural area," Kuttner said in a meeting telecast on the town's community access television station, WilliNet. "So we could keep the sidewalk in the subdivision areas but require in the rural areas, payment in lieu of, which, as he said, would put the urban and rural development on an equal footing in terms of development cost.
 
View Full Story

More Williamstown Stories