We are pleased to announce the Columbia University SEAS Data Science Institute Mudd Hall Renovation has earned LEED® Gold Certification as established by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) with 63 points. The Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) verified the certification. LEED is the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.
Our design team transformed an underutilized 1960s-era engineering library into the Data Science Institute (DSI). Located in the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) and conceived as a hub for computational research, the DSI unites multiple departments from across the campus in single collaborative environment that contains 12 private faculty offices, 60 doctoral student workstations, a prototyping space for research projects and an array of flexible work and gathering areas. The arrangement of these spaces encourages cross-disciplinary discourse and problem solving.
Our approach diffuses boundaries and drives natural light deep into all spaces. We created neighborhoods of private offices with shared work areas and linked them via meandering paths. For the Student Commons, the client sought to create a public space with sufficient presence to serve as the iconic “front door” for the school. The challenge was to achieve this without alteration to the exterior envelope. We inserted a sculptural perforated metal ceiling throughout the commons and main entrance lobby, which provides a strong signature element unifying disparate spaces, while also preserving a sense of verticality and lightness.
We specified low VOC materials, FSC certified lumber and regional materials and reduced water consumption through efficient fixtures. As excepted in shared work spaces, individuals have control over their lighting and HVAC systems. Perhaps most unusual, we leveraged the monitor-intense activity of computation research and successfully cut the lighting levels to 10-20 FC providing work light only where needed.
Sustainability Strategies:
reduction in fixture water usage
of on-site generated construction waste diverted from landfill
of regularly occupied spaces have access to outside views
reduction to the connected lighting power
of total building materials have been manufactured using recycled materials
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.