We are pleased to announce our Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex at Northeastern University received a Boston Society of Architects (BSA) Honor Award for Design Excellence. The sole judging criterion is design excellence. The jury is empowered to determine the extent to which design excellence is informed by aesthetic, functional, contextual, sustainability, social or other characteristics. The BSA will announce the tier of the award recipients at the annual Gala in January 2018.
Constructed on an urban brownfield site between two existing parking garages, the ISEC is the first step of a long-term vision to extend the fabric of Northeastern’s Huntington Avenue campus across the MBTA and Amtrak rail lines, connecting the Fenway and Roxbury neighborhoods. The project reflects the University’s ambition to establish itself as a premier research institution with the addition of a state-of-the art science facility in Boston. The ISEC is shaped by faculty neighborhoods and wide open, flexible laboratories that surround a six-story atrium, or melting pot, at the heart of the new academic precinct. A mix of wet labs, dry labs and computational space on each floor support interdisciplinary research teams as they tackle today’s complex scientific challenges.
The building’s dynamic skin was developed using a parametric model and custom compositing software that enabled us to accurately simulate solar performance, and thus optimize the sunshade system design. Sunshade system performance output was fed directly into the building energy model, allowing our engineers to right-size MEP equipment with great precision. This workflow yielded significant cost savings at an order of magnitude seldom realized with such accuracy. Our parametric model was also integrated directly with fabrication models of the custom curtainwall, enabling its complex elements to be unitized for rapid on-site installation. The ISEC is tracking LEED Gold and complies with the 2030 Commitment energy reduction targets.
Related:
Celebrating the ISEC at Northeastern University
Northeastern University’s ISEC Earns AN Best of Design Award
Northeastern University formally opens $225 million science, engineering facility
Northeastern Celebrates Grand Opening of $225 Million Science Facility
ISEC Ribbon Cutting
Opening ISEC
The 2025 OpenLAB Boston studio work will be exhibited at Virginia Tech Monday, March 2nd through Wednesday, March 4th.
Please join us for the following events on Monday, March 2nd:
11:00am - Lecture with Parke MacDowell
1:00pm Lobby talk with Kevin Sullivan
This year’s studio identifies seven sites along the frayed edges of Boston’s Greenway. The Greenway is a one-mile-long linear park running through the heart of the city, reconnecting downtown Boston with its waterfront. Many of the parcels along its edges remain undeveloped and present mute, blank facades to the public realm. Addressing and repairing these edges through acts of infilling, layering, grafting, framing, and placemaking is the core focus of the studio—SUTURE.