University of Southern Maine

As part of the University of Southern Maine (USM) Portland campus transformation, the University’s building its first-ever Portland-based residence hall — offering attractive, affordable student housing in one of the nation’s most livable cities.

Date: 2021-2022
Architects: Elkus Manfredi & SMRT
Client: PC Construction
GC: Capstone Development Partners
Location: Portland, Maine
Project Type: New Construction

About this Project

Summary

On May 20th, 2021, the University of Southern Maine broke ground for their much-anticipated Career & Student Success Center (CSSC) and adjacent Portland Commons Residence Hall, the first-ever housing on USM’s Portland campus.

This 100 million dollar endeavor is the largest building project in the school’s history. Once completed, this 218,000 square foot facility will provide housing for nearly 580 students, residential staff and University of Maine System graduate students, and Maine Law Students. The Residence Hall will consist of a mix of en-suite single-occupancy rooms, studio apartments, and larger apartments with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms.

This project is overseen by Capstone Development Partners, LLC., a leading national student housing real estate developer specializing in on-campus public-private partnerships.

Solutions Provided

Atlantic Prefab was selected by PC Construction, which manages all aspects of procurement and construction for this project, to provide the following products for the new Residence Hall:

Load-bearing wall panels

Interior load-bearing walls

Utilizing these Atlantic Prefab solutions will aid in the speed of construction time and increase quality and simplify project scheduling.

This Residence Hall is designed to Passive House (PHIUS) standards, the world’s most stringent certification that measures energy efficiency and indoor air quality, and is expected to use 50% less energy than a comparable structure built to code.