Notre Dame School of Architecture

The Notre Dame campus is known for its historic buildings, many of which are listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. A new 100,000-square foot building, the Walsh Family Hall of Architecture, had to complement and harmonize with that historic atmosphere while meeting strict LEED Gold criteria for sustainability to ensure that the building would last.

Designing this new building for future architects was a challenge that Stantec, the firm engaged as Executive Architect, was excited to tackle.

“We knew that the foundation of our design had to be well-written specifications,” explained Stantec’s Andrzej Mordzinski. That’s when Stantec turned to the writers of Deltek’s Specification Writing Services. “We chose to work with Deltek because of their extensive expertise in serving architectural firms developing specifications, their history with similar projects, the strict quality control process they have in place, and the certified and qualified professionals that are part of Deltek’s team.”

Stantec worked with Deltek’s Elsa Boyden, a certified architect and specification writer with previous experience working on school and universities projects. She worked on projects for Princeton University, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and York University’s Centre for Research on Earth and Space Science (CRESS). Most of these large projects had similar historic and LEED characteristics, restrictions, and requirements.

“Elsa became a critical part of our team,” Mordzinski said. “Her expertise and attention to detail were invaluable as we balanced our needs of complementing the history of the Notre Dame campus and focusing on sustainable building for the future.”

“We ended up with a 560-page book based on AIA MasterSpec’s Premium library,” said Boyden.  “It was a very large LEED Gold certified project demanding extraordinary coordination for its extensive exterior carpentry, landscape construction, and the need to meet tight deadlines.”

The stunning Walsh Family Hall of Architecture was dedicated in November of 2018.

To learn more about Deltek’s Specification Writing Services, contact us directly for more information.