PAYETTE’s BU CILSE Featured in Architect’s Newspaper

Published September 2, 2016 on archpaper.com

The Architect’s Newspaper features our Boston University Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering (CILSE) project as one of the first US projects to employ large format GRFC fins and panels.

Situated along Boston’s Commonwealth Avenue, the Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering (CILSE) promises to bring a state-of-the-art research facility to the front door of Boston University’s campus. The 170,000-square-foot nine-story building will serve faculty from schools and departments throughout BU’s expansive neuroscience community, along with other universities in the Boston area.

In the article, PAYETTE Associate Principal Peter Vieira explains the CILSE’s rectilinear massing is a sympathetic nod to the square-shouldered, deco-Gothic blocks developed by the University’s early designers, including Ralph Cram, in the 1940’s. However, in contrast to the weighty masonry appearance of these buildings, the University desired a much more transparent skin for CILSE, one capable of revealing the cutting-edge scientific research happening inside its most high-technology building constructed to date.  

When complete, the CILSE will be one of the first projects in the U.S. to employ large-format, glass-fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) fins and panels. Incorporated into our design, these products are being manufactured by Rieder Smart Elements GmbH, under their FibreC product line, and are being erected by Ipswich Bay Glass.

Read the full article.

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A Tale of Two Facades