Clarkson students present municipal building plan to Canton officials

Thomas Graser, Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.
·2 min read

Apr. 26—CANTON — Students from Clarkson University Professor Eric Backus's CE490 civil engineering senior design class presented a plan for a new municipal building to village trustees and town council members Wednesday night.

In March 2023, architects from BCA Architects and Engineers, Watertown, presented a $25 million plan for a new municipal building.

Officials balked at the cost and began looking for alternatives.

The plans then and now involved tearing down the McDonald's Restaurant at 64 Main St. and building a new building on the footprint, leaving the old building in use during construction. The old building footprint would then become part of the parking lot and greenspace.

The eight students, all seniors, took on the project last semester as a senior capstone project.

The students, Jacob Vaccaro, Claudia Scala, Chessney Buell, Caleb Gardner, Addison Wallace, Shazoi Hall, Jeffrey Lavair and John Dundon, were all present Wednesday night to lead officials through a slide presentation.

The proposed building, Vaccaro, the project manager, said, would be shaped like a backward J, with Main Street at the bottom of the J. The west side of the building would house the courtroom and court offices, while village and town offices would be housed on the larger east side of the building.

The students designed the building without the inclusion of space for the police department and the village historian.

Vaccaro said the design is less institutional than the building the boards had been looking at and contains elements to fit in the design of other buildings downtown.

The court side of the building would be inaccessible, without key cards, when the court is in session.

The upper floor of the municipal side would have a small, private conference room and a large conference room, which could be cordoned off to form three conference rooms.

The configuration of the building would allow for 54 parking spaces with four handicapped spaces.

The building would be steel framed to allow for open spaces without columns. The plans also included the type of HVAC units needed and a backup generator.

Total cost, the students estimated would be $13,105,310 or about $307 per square foot.

The college and the students like to work on real-world projects, Canton Mayor Michael E. Dalton said.

"This was a perfect one for them," he said. "We are a long way from a new building, but this was another way of looking at the issues, and they did a great job. That was a great example of what the teamwork of Clarkson engineering students can produce."