The Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) is a high-capacity regional data center that provides state-of-the-art infrastructure to support the advanced computational needs of over 20,000 faculty and student researchers and educators in New England and around the world. The 90,000-square-foot facility is located on an 8.6-acre former industrial parcel in Holyoke’s Canal district and provides shared space, power, cooling, and high-speed connectivity for research, education and collaboration.
On a site constrained by the adjacent canal system and a private road bisecting the property, VHB provided integrated services from due diligence through construction administration. Our work included site evaluation; conceptual planning; grading; stormwater management; utility and landscape design; sustainability analysis; air and noise assessment; traffic, access, and parking studies; and multi-jurisdictional permitting. VHB collaborated closely with the client, design team, and stakeholders to optimize the limited developable area, maintain required access and canal features, and deliver an efficient, cost-effective site and building layout that met project performance and budget goals.
The MGHPCC was awarded a LEED Platinum Certification, becoming the first university research data center to achieve this status. The facility is the result of an innovative collaboration between private industry (DellEMC and Cisco), the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and New England’s most research-intensive universities, including Boston University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, the University of Massachusetts, and Yale University.
