Beyond Homogeneity: Boston’s Solution

Last year, we were honored to participate in Metropolis’s Think Tank series. The event, led by Metropolis’s Director of Design Innovation Susan S. Szenasy, creates space to discuss important issues surrounding human-centered design with industry leaders.

We focused on breaking through the wave of homogenous architecture in Boston with Northeastern University’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex. A recent Metropolis article covers an in-depth Q/A from the Think Tank dialogue.  

In Boston the conversation surrounds the timidity of its recent architecture — uniform structures and the same glass box that dominates the skyline — regardless of climate, culture, material resources and specific needs. In contract, the ISEC represents a bold vision to rethink the university campus, the institution’s research agenda and its connectivity to the surrounding city. As highlighted by Susan, “The project’s success lied in the interconnection of the client point of view, architectural point of view and the city point of view.”

“It’s an amazing commission to start with a client that’s looking to take a bold leap forward, particularly with the research agenda, and to do this with architecture that has to live up to the ambition they’re reaching for. It’s an urban intervention that’s going to transform this campus and the adjacent part of Boston with an inventive new landscape that’s unlike anything the city’s seen. The legacy of this project is really the breadth of its reach — the building has allowed us to explore things in terms of social geometry in developing a research culture. I like to think of the site as an open hand that’s reaching out and inviting the city in dialogue with the campus.” – Kevin Sullivan, President/CEO, Payette

“This project represents the Northeastern’s campus and its relationship to the city; this is important to the global profile the campus is developing. The confluence of our mission and aspirations with architecture, sustainability, and integrating across disciplines acknowledges our place in the city. While this project is unique to Northeastern, it has lessons for our sister institutions across the city.” – Mike Davis, Michael R. Davis, FAIA, LEED AP, President, Bergmeyer Associates, Inc. and representative of the Boston Civic Design Commission.

Read the full article.

Related:
Beyond Homogeneity – Boston’s Solution