Constructed on an urban brownfield site consisting of an existing surface parking lot set between two garages, ISEC I represents the completion of the first phase of the newly planned 660,000 SF academic precinct. Flow and Movement define the form language of this building. Dynamic movement systems permeate the project, expand a campus and bridge two Boston neighborhoods. This cutting-edge research facility defines a new academic and social hub for students and allows Northeastern University to compete as a premier research institution.
The Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex I (ISEC) is the first academic and research building to expand the Northeastern University campus to the south of a major rail corridor in the City of Boston. Bridging two diverse neighborhoods, the building was planned along with a new pedestrian bridge and landscape intervention. A constructed slope in the ground plane creates both an accessible path to the pedestrian bridge and acts as a shield protecting the site from the active tracks. The landscape is defined by paths and clusters of spaces like pebbles in a stream that lead to the track crossing and flow directly into the building with primary entrances at both the street and bridge level. A restored section of the Southwest Corridor Park is integrated with the landscape, buffering the building from the street and serving as a pedestrian and bike route.
The ground plane of the building is defined by academic and public functions oriented around a six-story atrium with a cafe, auditorium, classrooms and teaching labs forming a cultural nexus, cultivating a vibrant shared public realm. The primary volume of the office cluster is raised to open the ground floor of the atrium to the landscape. Defining the ground floor, the board formed concrete volume of the 300 seat auditorium emerges from the sloped landscape flowing from the outside in, with a continuous paving surface, defining the atrium as an extension of the landscape.
A curving bronze anodized solar veil envelopes the low energy office cluster, expressing the flow of the landscape while shading the offices from the harsh southwestern exposure. The high energy lab bar is defined as a thermal overcoat, a gray ribbed metal screen that lifts to reveal a glass volume of research space as it enters the atrium.
ISEC I represents the most significant expansion of research in the University’s history and provides a home for interdisciplinary academic research disciplines: engineering, health sciences, basic sciences and computer science. Flexibly planned adaptable research space is designed to house research labs for biology, bioengineering, computational biology, genomics, high through-put screening, imaging, materials characterization and metabolomics. Offices, conference rooms and break-out areas are oriented to the south of the atrium, buffering the research labs from the harsh solar exposure. The theme of research on display permeates the project’s expression of transparency with the primary research spaces fully glazed to the atrium and visible from collaborative spaces surrounding the atrium.
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