WCMA Hosts community Forum on Mass Timber Structure of New Museum Building Project

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA) invites the community to a forum to learn more about how mass timber is reshaping the future of architecture, sustainability, and the arts at 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27, at the Williams Inn Ballroom.
 
As the first purpose-built home for the Williams College Museum of Art takes shape, this forum invites students, faculty, professionals, and the wider community to learn about design and engineering innovations driving the project forward. 
 
Framed by this year's campus theme, "On the Log," the conversation will explore how the museum's design reflects evolving relationships between art, nature, learning, and community. 
 
The featured speakers are Kevin Lamyuktseung, Associate Principal with SO-IL, and Danielle Gray, Senior Virtual Design and Construction Manager with Consigli Construction, who will be in conversation about the design and fabrication of WCMA's mass timber structure and the upcoming process for assembling it onsite this fall. There also will be general updates on the construction project and an opportunity for the audience to ask questions.
 
The new Williams College Museum of Art is conceived to serve the college, the local community and visitors to the Berkshires. The new museum will be a space designed with students in mind, fostering a sense of belonging for campus members and the wider community, and a welcoming experience for all visitors. The building will offer substantial gallery space for showing more of the 15,000 works in the museum's collection, as well as facilities for easy access to collections for student, faculty, and visiting scholar requests, and more object study classrooms, stated a press release.
 
RSVPs are appreciated here: https://forms.office.com/e/iinmFKYrRm 
 
For more information, visit artmuseum.williams.edu.

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Williamstown's Cost Rising for Emergency Bank Restoration

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The cost to stabilize the bank of the Hoosic River near a town landfill continues to rise, and the town is still waiting on the commonwealth's blessing to get to work.
 
Department of Public Works Director Craig Clough was before the Finance Committee on Wednesday to share that, unlike the town hoped, the emergency stabilization work will require bringing in a contractor — and that is before a multimillion dollar project to provide a long-term solution for the site near Williams College's Cole Field.
 
"I literally got the plans last Friday, and it's not something we'll be able to do in-house," Clough told the committee. "They're talking about a cofferdam of a few hundred feet, dry-pumping everything out and then working along the river. That's something that will be beyond our manpower to do, our people power, and the equipment we have will not be able to handle it."
 
Clough explained that the cofferdam is similar to the work done on the river near the State Road (Route 2) bridge on the west side of North Adams near West Package and Variety Stores.
 
"We don't know the exact numbers yet of an estimate," Clough said. "The initial thought was $600,000 a few months ago. Now, knowing what the plans are, the costs are going to be higher. They did not think there was going to need to be a coffer dam put in [in the original estimate]."
 
The draft capital budget of $592,500 before the Fin Comm includes $500,000 toward the riverbank stabilization project.
 
The town's finance director told the committee he anticipates having about $700,000 in free cash (technically the "unreserved fund balance") to spend in fiscal year 2027 once that number is certified by the Department of Revenue in Boston.
 
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