Waterbury State Office Complex Project

When Tropical Storm Irene swept through Vermont in 2011, it flooded nearly every waterway in the state. A psychiatric hospital built in the Village of Waterbury in 1890 had been converted to office space for hundreds of Vermont Agency of Human Services employees. When the Winooski River overflowed, they were temporarily relocated while the state Department of Buildings and General Services worked on a plan to make the property capable of weathering a 500-year storm.

At $130 million, the Waterbury State Office Complex Redevelopment is the state’s largest construction project to date. It earned the department an American Public Works Association 2017 Project of the Year Award in the Disaster or Emergency Construction/Repair (more than $75 million) category.

Redevelopment began in August 2013. Freeman French Freeman Architects worked with stakeholders to devise an overarching strategy and schedule that would achieve project goals. PC Construction removed 21 buildings to make room for an 86,000-square-foot office building while building a 20,000-square-foot central plant and maintenance facility with wood biomass boilers and emergency generators. The site’s original 13 buildings were restored to their historical grandeur.

All occupied areas are now above the 500-year-flood level. New structures are designed to meet LEED Gold standards and the project will result in a 25% reduction in energy consumption across the campus. The campus will house 830 Agency of Human Services employees and 200 other state employees.

The project was paid for with $82 million in state funds, $17 million from insurance proceeds, and $31 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).