Gateway Park at WPI
The O’Connell Companies recently celebrated the next phase of growth at Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s (WPI) Gateway Park with the groundbreaking of the second building. At 92,000 square-feet, Gateway II will house tenants such as the Biomanufacturing Education and Training Center, the Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, the Fire Protection Engineering department at WPI, and the WPI School of Business. To be built and owned by O’Connell subsidiary, the O’Connell Development Group, Daniel O’Connell’s Sons is serving as construction manager on the project. The building has been designed to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
One of our employees recently received the following email from a colleague. It serves as a wonderful reminder to us that our projects are not just buildings, but they serve to transform their environment and the people in it:
“Every Thursday I spend my day with Harriet, my almost 4-yr-old granddaughter…As part of our routine – something she asks for – we drive over to Gateway and watch the construction. I can’t remember how it started – if we came upon it or if I showed it to her – but it is absolutely one of our deep pleasures together. We watched the dirt being moved, we watched the hole in the ground being made, we watched the footings being laid, and now we are watching the steel being placed one after the other. We have read the signs about hardhats and talked about coffee and lunch breaks. We watch backhoes, cranes, shovels, and bobcats. We see the workers reading the drawings. We look at the rendering of what the finished building will look like and see how close it is to what we are seeing. It is nothing short of wonderful. To see her face light up is priceless.”
