PAYETTE Receives Four AIA COTE Top Ten Honors in Four Years

Meticulous craft, layered transparency and academic connectivity are the driving forces behind the new Science Center at Amherst College. The building’s innovative features are evident in section, where classrooms, a mix of energy-intensive laboratories, offices and flex spaces are clustered around a central daylit commons and united by a dramatic rooftop canopy. An integrated approach to sustainability was essential from the earliest planning stages, impacting every aspect of the project. Embracing the guiding concept of science on display, the activity in the building is visible to the campus and most interiors share intimate visual connections, enlivening the formerly marginalized campus precinct.

The Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC) is designed to advance Northeastern University’s cutting-edge, interdisciplinary approach to global challenges of sustainability, security and health. Flow and movement define the form language of the building, expanding the University’s urban campus to the south of a major rail corridor and reconnecting the Fenway and Roxbury neighborhoods. Dynamic movement systems permeate the project, like pebbles in a stream defining the landscape paths through bio-swales and the dynamic solar veil shading the office pod. The building form is intrinsically linked with high performance architecture through parametric design and energy modeling to achieve an integrated design.