BRUNSWICK

Bowdoin College can build its new apartments.

The college was given approval by the planning board on Tuesday to construct four 3,900-square-foot apartment-style buildings on Park Row, between College and South streets.

These new buildings will be the first residential construction the college has undertaken since 2005, according to Matt Orlando, senior vice president for Bowdoin College.

Sean Landry with Lavallee Brensinger Architects said Bowdoin considers this a transitional site for the campus, so the homes have been designed to fit into the Park Row neighborhood with residential elements. The three-story buildings are two floors, with living in the attic, he said “not dissimilar to the houses that are across the street.”

The new housing will provide a total of 88 beds with 16 apartments. Each building has two four-person apartments on the first floor, an eight-person apartment on the second floor and a six-person apartment on the third floor.

Construction will focus on energy efficiency using passive housing standards, Landry said, “which is fitting in with Bowdoin’s initiatives to approach carbon neutrality.”

“We have foot-thick walls full of insulation, triple glaze windows,” he added, “and it focuses on the envelope and really not using any energy at all.”

The planning board on Tuesday also got its first look at plans submitted by Brunswick Bath LLC to develop a 5,140-square-foot medical office at 191-209 Bath Road, which will house Convenient- MD. The project will need to come back before the board for further review.

Max Puyanic, founder and chief executive officer of ConvenientMD, told board members the full-service urgent care centers are staffed just like an emergency room, can see 70 to 80 percent of patients who walk into an ER, and provide a wide scope of care. Visits are normally under $200.

“We’re focused on being very, very affordable,” he said, “so we bill like an inducement primary care office.”

The Brunswick location would be the company’s fourth in Maine.

Puyanic said the company is focused on busy intersections to ensure visibility. Half of the patients are driving from a good distance, and virtually all are sick, injured and under some level of distress — whether it is a child with a fever or a nail through the hand.

“We need to stand out,” he said, “be easily seen and identified.”

Curt Neufeld of Sitelines said the project would be located on a long and narrow site across Bath Road from the Cumberland Farms under construction. A vacant building on the site would be demolished.

dmoore@timesrecord.com