After years of planning and raising funds, in 2007 the Town of Swampscott and the Swampscott Historical Commission embarked on a large renovation of Swampscott’s historic Town Hall, once home to the co-founder of General Electric Elihu Thomson.  Project highlights included joining the main house with the “carriage house” on three floors, addition of an elevator making all three floors handicapped-accessible, and installation of all new heating and air conditioning systems complete with smart HVAC controls.   The usable area of the 119-year-old building was increased from 19,000 square feet to 23,000 square feet.

Once the construction contract was awarded, the Town quickly appointed Victoria Masone as the Owner’s Project Manager on the >$3M project.  From the start of construction, Victoria was involved in the day-to-day operations of the contractor, working with the architects to respond to requests for information (RFIs) and safeguarding the Town’s interests.  Some issues that arose included discovery of a buried oil tank and subsequent remediation, resolving a discrepancy between the elevations of the main house and the carriage house through a creative design change, and minor layout changes to accommodate discovered historical features including a hidden floor opening for sound distribution from an old organ.

Victoria was instrumental in expediting issue resolution and facilitating project close-out such that the entire construction phase was completed in one year, and displacement of Town offices was kept to a minimum.  Change Orders were kept to a minimum, and the project came in at just over $3.5M.