Restoration and Renovation

Technolutions headquarters in New Haven, Conn. - experiential lobby / Photos by Halkin Mason Photography, courtesy of Svigals + Partners New Haven, CT – Architecture, art, and advisory firm Svigals + Partners announced the completion of renovations for the local headquarters of educational software developer Technolutions.

The firm also announced the completion of Technolutions’ new workplace in Portland, Ore. Tasked with concurrently designing both offices in a style that reflects Technolutions’ state-ofthe-art product and bold mission, Svigals + Partners worked with contractors and subtrades at each location to execute similar designs with congruous finishes and branding. Now located in downtown’s Connecticut Financial Center, the Technolutions headquarters relocated from the nearby Gold Building in a move that allowed the company – founded in 1994 by entrepreneur and philanthropist, Alexander Clark – to consolidate its operations from three separate floors to a spacious and vibrant 21,000sf layout on the 22nd floor. Svigals + Partners’ design of the floor plan and the palette of furniture and finishes served as

Raymond, NH – On Memorial Day, the Raymond Historic Society dedicated a restored 1932 Boston & Maine Railroad Caboose to A. Willis Goddard.

In 1969, Willis and nine other members established the Raymond Historical Society. Her grandson, Scott Knightly, and his company EnviroVantage, donated the restoration work to be done to the historic railcar in his grandmother’s honor.

Restoration efforts on the caboose, named “Old Rusty” in recent years, began in September 2020 with the setup of scaffolding to aid in encapsulating the caboose with a plastic tent before sand blasting the entire structure. These precautions were an important part of the safety regulations taken because the aging paint contained lead and needed to be handled and properly disposed of by EnviroVantage’s technicians.

After the paint was removed, the 16 windows in the caboose were taken to be reframed and repaired, and a rust inhibitor and final coats of paint were applied. As the windows took shape in the EnviroVantage shop, the caboose’s roof surface was coated with Herculine truck bed compound, donated by Lowes in Epping. The final coats of paint, as well as the logo, were created and applied by Highball Graphics of West Ossipee before Thanksgiving 2020.

The new blue caboose now greets visitors in the Raymond Historical Society yard next to three other railcars: a 1932 Whitcomb engine, a 1953 refrigerator box car, and a 1944 push car.

The B&M Railroad N-5 Series of caboose were common on rural branch lines where they served as a mobile office and quarters for the conductor and brakemen. In the late 1960s, the N-5s received the famous scheme of blue sides with red ends, black roof, white trim, and a large B&M logo on either side.

Casual gathering area

a model for the company’s Portland office expansion, where Technolutions was planning to expand from a partial floor to occupy the full 16,000sf plate.

Anchoring both environments is a blue glass-enclosed room used for conferencing and frequent team meetings, surrounded by 40 workstations, call rooms, casual gathering areas, and a breakroom with drop-down projection screens and cameras that capture the entire room for virtual company-wide meetings. Strategically installed speakers and projectors allow for full audiovisual access in all the office and meeting zones.

The experiential lobby includes a perforated metal ceiling illuminated from behind that creates a dynamic effect of a starry sky in motion. Piped-in music and rotating, digital images sustain the futuristic aesthetic, as does the reception desk which, illuminated by colorful LEDs

Interactive meeting zone

from underneath, seems to be floating untethered by gravity.

For the New Haven location, much of the mechanical, engineering, and plumbing infrastructure also received significant upgrades, and private offices were outfitted with glazing to give internal spaces access to natural daylight and views.

Boston – Abbot’s Small Projects Division recently completed a concrete repair project at Mass General Brigham Hospital’s campus in Charlestown, Mass.

Based on Abbot’s longstanding relationship with this institution, Abbot was contracted to repair two deteriorated concrete awnings/overhangs on the garage across from the Center of I mmunology and Inflammatory Diseases at 149 13th Street.

Abbot sound tested the concrete to determine areas of delamination, removed the loose and debonded concrete, and patched these areas with Euclid Chemical Eucorepair V100 repair mortar to match the existing profile. In certain larger areas where concrete forms could be used, Abbot added epoxy coated rebar where necessary, and poured the concrete repair mortar with aggregate into the forms.

When all of the repairs were completed, Abbot painted the awning with an elastomeric paint to match the existing color and texture. For access to the overhead work area, Abbot utilized a small scissor lift that provided a secure work platform for the crew.

Mass General Brigham Hospital