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Boston University Center for Computational and Data Science/KPMB Architects
- area:
345,000 square feet
Year:
2022
manufacturer: Unifor, revenge, armstrong ceiling, positive, Millworks Custom Manufacturing (2001) Company-
Chief Architect:
Bruce Kuwahara, Marian McKenna, Luigi Larocca, Paul Rocha, Lucy Timbers, David Smythe, Kyle Opie, Taylor Loving, Melissa Wu, Matt G Rivosudski, Taylor Hall, Armin Monsefi, Victor Garzon, Samantha Hart, Nicholas Wong, Olivia DiFelice, Jason Chang, Fotini Pitoglou, Carolyn Lee, Kayley Mullings, Arminé Tadevosyan
Text description provided by the architect. The Boston University Center for Computing and Data Science is a landmark for the university. It transforms the skyline, achieves laudable sustainability goals, and prioritizes human-centered design to maximize collaboration and interconnectivity. The program brings together the departments of mathematics, statistics and computer science to build community among 3,000 students, faculty and staff. Implemented as a vertical campus.
Standing majestically on the banks of the Charles River, the 19-story, 345,000-square-foot center is Boston’s largest sustainable, operational fossil fuel-free building. Its cantilevered volume features reddish-brown diagonal louvres (to minimize solar radiation and maximize shading) and a gleaming mirrored serrated facade that sits on a triple-glazed curtain wall that covers the structure. While giving the building a unique linear aesthetic, these design elements also help improve comfort and sustainability, making the building warm in winter and cool in summer.
The podium reaches out to hover over Commonwealth Avenue to complete the streetscape and generate maximum ground level animation on the avenue. Highly transparent and porous, it serves as an urban porch for arrival, study and gathering. The center is conceived as an ascending academic community, with the lower floors dedicated to mathematics and statistics, the middle floors to computer science, and the top floors to interdisciplinary work and public spaces. A central atrium unites faculty, staff, and students in a spirit of collaboration, and interconnecting staircases extend from this area to the 138th floor, connecting different disciplines, promoting the cross-fertilization of ideas, and inspiring serendipitous encounters.
The design sets an ambitious new precedent for sustainability for future academic buildings in Boston and beyond. Boston University’s Climate Action Plan aims to reduce the institution’s carbon emissions to zero by 2040, and the center aims to achieve LEED Platinum certification and operate 100% fossil fuel-free with heating and cooling The geothermal closed loop system of the building is through a ground source heat pump system.
The building utilizes renewable and alternative energy sources, including a groundwater recharge system and a cutting-edge exterior shading system. The open interior spaces take advantage of the center’s unique location in downtown Boston, with expansive river views from three sides of the building. Classrooms and collaboration spaces are flooded with light, illuminated through floor-to-ceiling windows, reminding students immersed in the digital realm to continue to be inspired by the natural world and remember the connection between technology and humanity. Whiteboard walls throughout the core showcase processes while inspiring collaborative creativity.
The state-of-the-art building includes 12 classrooms, two computer labs, a ground-floor café, numerous collaboration spaces and a plaza with covered bicycle parking. The stacked campus is topped by an event space and a three-story open-air pavilion. Green roofs and terraces are located throughout the center, connecting students, faculty, and staff to the natural environment and providing views of the city. These open spaces can enhance connections and collaboration between the various departments that now call the center home.
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