Project Details

The University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus underwent a major transformation with the addition of two key facilities: the 218,000-square-foot Portland Commons Residence Hall and the 41,000-square-foot McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success. This ambitious project, was the the largest in the university’s history.

Portland Commons features nearly 600 beds in a variety of configurations, including single rooms, studios, and multi-bedroom units. The residence hall includes four interconnected wings (two five-story and two eight-story) around a half-acre semi-private courtyard. Notably, Portland Commons is the second largest Passive House building at a U.S. university and among the top ten Passive House buildings nationwide, expected to use less than half the energy of conventional buildings.

The McGoldrick Center highlights Portland’s maritime and the state’s forestry heritage with its diagonal mass timber framing and corrugated metal façade.

Architects: SMRT, Portland, ME, and Elkus Manfredi Architects, Boston, MA
General Contractor: PC Construction, South Burlington, VT