MRI Arrives at Northeastern University

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… it’s… It’s a 26,000 pound magnet!

At the Northeastern University’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex, an MRI was delivered for a 3,000 square foot fit-out in the recently occupied building. This tool will be vital to the brain cognition research conducted at the University.

Our Construction Manager, Skanska and local trucking and rigging company, O.B. Hill worked diligently with the MRI’s manufacturer and our design team to design, review and coordinate the placement of this imaging machine. While the original design did not include an MRI, the ISEC was conceived with flexibility in mind and includes robust structural framing to support the rigging of future equipment. Due to this design attribute, the MRI was successfully moved from the service drive into the building through a pre-designed floor opening and into its highly detailed resting place.

The room that houses the MRI employs a special isolation pad below and passive shielding enclosure designed to protect the machine from external interference that could compromise the image quality of the scans produced by the machine. For a peak at early studies of this system, check out this blog post from January.

The MRI is currently completing an initial startup procedure and is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of summer. The suite supporting the operation of the MRI is also nearing completion. The design team was excited to witness the process of moving this valuable tool into place and we are looking forward to the seeing the project through to completion in the next couple of weeks.