STEM Academy Architects to Design Town Hall
NEWINGTON - The Town Hall Renovations Project Committee voted unanimously to select Quisenberry Arcari Architects from a pool of 14 RFP respondents after two nights of executive session interviews last week.

       The Farmington-based Quisenberry Arcari is a regular with construction projects in the area, designing the blueprints for Newington’s own Martin Kellogg biomedical science academy and the aerospace lab at John Wallace.

       They are currently working on the Newington High School career technical renovations project.

       â€"We’re excited and honored to have been selected,” said architect Thomas Arcari over the phone. â€"We look forward to helping the town of Newington to a successful project.”

       To the Committee, a successful project would mean reducing the physical size of the aged municipal building, while increasing the amount of â€"usable” space-an objective that Arcari seemed optimistic about.

       The 96,000 square foot building is believed to have around 46,000 square feet of unusable space.

       â€"We believe that efficiencies can be realized both from a space needs perspective, and from an overall cost perspective,” Arcari said.

       To the latter end, the Committee has expressed a desire to stay within a $24.3 million budget-the figure estimated by consultants from DTC to cover a renovate-in place scheme that would fix the building’s heating and electrical issues.

       Committee members wanted to see if the amount could be stretched further, and Arcari thinks that their envisioned scheme-the downsizing of the Town Hall building and the construction of a larger Community Center-can happen within that budget.

       â€"It’s not unrealistic,” he said. â€"[But] it’s very early and there are obviously a lot of factors. But the target is very clear, and it’s our task to make it happen.”

       As of earlier this week, a contract between the town and the firm had yet to be finalized. Both Arcari and Newington Administrative Services Director Jeff Baron declined to provide specifics pertaining to bid figures-information they said would be available once a contract is signed.

      
STORY BY MARK DIPAOLA   |  Dec 07 2016  |  COMMENTS?