Northeastern University ISEC: Below Grade

Northeastern University’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC) is a 220,000 square-foot teaching and research facility located in Boston, MA. It represents the university’s expansion into, and engagement with, the neighborhood of Roxbury south of the rail corridor. A pedestrian bridge connects the ISEC to the main campus in a grand arc spanning the rail corridor and touching down at two points on the main campus, providing an important link between the university and Roxbury.

Many of the components critical to the ISEC’s operations are located below grade but, like the screenwriter working with long hours with little exposure to sunlight, the basement loses much of the publicity it deserves to the A-List celebrity above-grade.

The basement will include genomics, metabolomics and proteomics labs (marked A in the diagrams), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) labs (B), electron microscopes (C), offices, support spaces, a switchgear and transformer vault (D) and a mechanical room (E).

NMR machines and electron microscopes are located at the extreme south of the building to minimize the vibration and electromagnetic (EM) disruption from trains operating on the rail corridor. Provisions for this equipment include stainless steel rebar and synthetic fiber reinforcing – non-magnetic materials – and aluminum flooring and wall finishes which act as passive EM shielding.

The mechanical room is located at the north end of the basement, adjacent to the rail corridor. It contains the building’s water chillers, pumps, condensers, heat exchangers and two air handling units (AHUs). One AHU serves the mechanical room itself and the other serves the auditorium located immediately above; both AHUs draw air through an intake shaft at one end of the mechanical room.

The electrical vault is located outboard and west of the main building footprint, connected to the mechanical room by an areaway; an emergency generator fuel vault is located on the east end of the mechanical room beneath the loading docks.

Grade varies across site: the Columbus Ave entry at the south end of the building is located at Level 1. A wide stair connects the floor of the 6-storey atrium to the pedestrian bridge entry at Level 2. Outside, a landscape stair rises from Level 1, along the west building face at the exterior of the auditorium, over the electrical vault areaway, and up to the pedestrian bridge. With this change in grade, the auditorium is partially submerged in landscape. A cast-in-place concrete slab is the base of the auditorium’s air distribution plenum and serves as an acoustic separation between the auditorium and mechanical room beneath.

Along the east facade, grade slopes down from the Columbus Ave entry to the building’s loading docks. A service drive beneath the pedestrian bridge at the building’s north face provides access to the transformer vault, interior and exterior loading docks and the emergency generator fuel fill station.

A monolithic concrete wall on the building’s north facade supports the bridge where it meets the building: the bridge’s structure bears on a continuous corbel near the top of the wall, separating service access below from pedestrian circulation above, and facilitating the connection between Roxbury and Northeastern University.