With Planning Board approval, the goal is to begin construction of the research center in the summer.
A rendering of the view from the north of the proposed high performance computing center on display during the Planning Board public hearing Tuesday.HOLYOKE – The Planning Board Tuesday
The project will include a two-story, 90,000-square-foot building of brick, precast concrete and glass adjacent to the canal, said Dante Angelucci Jr., of Leggat McCall Properties, of Boston.
“We’re really excited about being here this evening,” Angelucci said.
Angelucci was among the consultants representing the partners in the project: the University of Massachusetts, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Northeastern University, EMC Corp., of Hopkinton, an information storage, back-up and recovery firm, and Cisco Systems Inc., a California-based internet network equipment maker.
About 80 percent of the interior of the building that houses the high performance computing center will be computers and machines that power and cool them, said John T. Goodhue, executive director of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, the entity’s formal name.
The academic research facility will hug the first-level canal on Bigelow Street and will operate round the clock, he said.
“It will be serving people who literally are all over the world,” Goodhue said.
The computing center will be capable of ultra-fast research into areas from biomedicine and the arts to climate change and how galaxies were formed.
Surveillance cameras and fencing will be installed for security, the site will have more than 50 parking spaces and a conference area will be available for public use, officials said.
About a dozen residents and officials asked about noise, traffic, parking and architecture, with none openly expressing opposition to the project.
Kurt Pfeil, who lives near the site of the center in a condominium on Cabot Street, asked about noise control for the air-cooling machinery the center will house to deal with heated computers.
Noise tests have been done on such machinery and shown to be less intrusive than standards allow, said Chris Lovett, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., of Watertown, a landscape architecture and urban design firm.
The center will occupy the former Mastex Industries site. Harry Lavo, of Easthampton Road, said he appreciates the saw-tooth shape of the Mastex roof and asked whether it could house the center instead of being demolished.
Angelucci said the building is in near-condemned shape and would cost too much to refurbish.
The board’s approval means that planning staff, as well as other departments such as public works, police and fire, have given the plan their blessings, officials said.
The plan is to begin construction of the facility this summer, officials said.
The reason the center is being built here is because of the available energy at the hydroelectric dam and canals owned and operated by the Holyoke Gas and Electric Department.
The hearing was held at Holyoke Heritage State Park on Appleton Street and lasted about 90 minutes.
Planning Board approval came with conditions that included having the center consider at some point incorporate the city’s ongoing canal walk renovation into its property.
Other highlights were that the project will include installation of new water and sewer mains in the area, four fire hydrants, planting of 80 spruce, pine and other trees for aesthetic and buffering reasons and nearly three acres of green space, officials said.