Springfield, Massachusetts
MGM Springfield occupies three blocks of downtown Springfield, Massachusetts, on a 14.5-acre site struck by a 2011 tornado. Rather than stand apart from the streetscape it joined, the resort was designed to read as a continuation of it, preserving and incorporating the facades of existing buildings after extended negotiation with the city and the Commonwealth over which historic resources to save. The resulting exterior changes material from block to block and story to story, moving among stucco, thin brick, GFRC, and honeycomb stone, each with its own attachment requirements, across what is structurally one building.
The SMARTci® building enclosure system enables that variety of materials to hold fast onto the wall and to create the visual effect the design intended. Across 177,000 square feet of exterior wall, the system establishes one insulated, air- and water-tight enclosure over metal stud framing, with polyiso insulation held continuous behind every cladding change, so that each finish the streetscape demanded attaches to the same detailed backup wall. Designed by the Friedmutter Group, built by AECOM Tishman, and installed by H. Carr & Sons Co., the exterior was composed to look like many buildings; SMARTci is what allowed it to be enclosed as one.
A casino required to look like its city
MGM committed early to a design that would depart from the fortress model of casino architecture and read instead as a continuation of Springfield’s downtown. That commitment had consequences. The $960 million design-build project, the largest single private undertaking in western Massachusetts, rehabilitated, renovated, or reimagined roughly 20 buildings on the site, some of which had stood for more than a century. A 450-ton historic church, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was lifted from the center of the site and relocated to its eastern corner to make the development possible. The design team spent a year and a half in negotiations with the city and the Commonwealth over which historic resources would be saved, preserved, or relocated, and construction drew on more than 200 contractors. The finished resort, completed in 2018, was named ENR New England’s 2019 Best Project in the residential and hospitality category, presenting a streetwall of varied heights, materials, and profiles in deliberate conversation with its historic neighbors.
For the building envelope, that architectural ambition translated into an unusual technical requirement. While a conventional project selects one or two cladding systems and details the wall once, MGM Springfield’s podium exterior required stucco, thin brick, GFRC panels, and honeycomb stone panels across its elevations, along with curtain wall interfaces, cornice profiles, and coping conditions, each attaching to the wall differently yet requiring the same continuous insulation and weather protection behind it.
One building enclosure under every facade
A single repeated backup wall, built around the SMARTci system, carried each of those facades. From inside out, the assembly runs metal stud framing at 16 inches on center, glass-mat gypsum sheathing, a continuous weather barrier, and SMARTci sub-framing z-girts carrying 4 inches of rigid polyiso insulation, a sequence that holds identical from one elevation to the next. The GreenGirt Max CMH™ composite z-girts, which combine the structural capacity of metal with the thermal performance of composite, run horizontally at 16 inches on center across the field of the podium walls and turn vertical at the rotunda, following the drum’s curved geometry without any change to the continuity of the enclosure behind them.
That one assembly is the constant in every exterior condition. Behind a thin brick elevation, a stone parapet, a stepped plaster window head, or the rotunda fascia, the wall is the same insulated, air- and water-tight enclosure, uninterrupted from condition to condition, so that the thermal bypass and moisture risks that ordinarily multiply with every material change never accumulate. The claddings change; the enclosure does not.
Seven conditions, one system
The exterior presents at least seven distinct attachment and trim conditions above that shared assembly.
- Stepped plaster. Applied directly over the rigid insulation as a base coat and finish coat, stepping in and out to form the profiled surrounds the historic streetscape called for.
- Thin brick. Hangs on a clip system with vertical spacers that establish the coursing offsets between adjacent panels.
- Honeycomb-backed thin stone panels. Mount on an interlocking clip system anchored back through the z-girts.
- GFRC panels. Mount on an interlocking clip system anchored back through the z-girts.
- Curtain wall sections. Meet the enclosure at sealed interfaces with their own insulation transitions.
- Parapet coping. Prefinished pre-sloped metal running over fire-treated wood blocking and plywood.
- The rotunda. The vertical girt orientation carries thin stone, GFRC, and a prefinished metal fascia around the drum.
Coordinating those conditions on one sub-framing layer is the project’s defining achievement. Cladding contractors were able to find the same insulation depth, and the same weather barrier behind their scope of work, and the building enclosure maintained its thermal and moisture continuity across every material change. On a facade whose entire purpose is variety, the enclosure’s uniformity made that purpose able to be realized.
The DrJ Engineering Report on the SMARTci Exterior Wall Continuous Insulation System is an independent engineering report specifiers can cite alongside the ASTM air-leakage and water-penetration results when writing SMARTci into a project document.
Frequently asked questions
Can one building enclosure system support multiple cladding types?
Yes. The SMARTci building enclosure system receives multiple cladding materials on a single girt and insulation layer. At MGM Springfield, the system supports stucco, thin brick, GFRC panels, and honeycomb stone panels across 177,000 square feet of exterior wall, with each cladding attaching through its own clip, spacer, or direct-applied condition. The enclosure remains continuous while the finishes change.
How is stucco applied over a continuous insulation system?
The SMARTci system carries stucco as a direct-applied finish over the insulation layer. At MGM Springfield, the stepped plaster is applied as a base coat and finish coat directly over 4 inches of rigid insulation, with the continuous weather barrier and sheathing behind it. The stepped profile is built up in the plaster itself, producing traditional surrounds and reveals without interrupting the insulation layer.
Can continuous insulation z-girts be installed vertically or on curved walls?
Yes. GreenGirt Max CMH composite z-girts install in either orientation, and the orientation can change within a single project without breaking the enclosure. At MGM Springfield, the z-girts run horizontally at 16 inches on center across the podium walls and turn vertical at the rotunda, where the system follows the drum’s curved geometry while maintaining the same insulation depth and weather barrier continuity.
Sources
- Advanced Architectural Products, MGM Springfield project record: system, area, girt configuration, insulation, cladding schedule, project team, and the Friedmutter Group podium exterior detail sheets (APC701 through APC767, March 30, 2017).
- “Best Residential/Hospitality: MGM Springfield,” Engineering News-Record, ENR New England 2019 Best Projects, November 26, 2019.
- “MGM Casino Project Rejuvenates Springfield,” Massachusetts Convention Center Authority.
- “Historic Church To Be Moved To Make Way For MGM Springfield Casino,” WAMC, April 19, 2016.
- “Making History By Preserving History,” Informed Infrastructure.
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