Northeastern University's Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex: A Hub for Innovation
The Northeastern University Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC) stands as a testament to the university's commitment to pioneering research and interdisciplinary collaboration. Designed by Payette and Stephen Stimson Associates (landscape architect), this cutting-edge facility serves as both an academic and a social center for students, solidifying Northeastern's position as a leading research institution.
Architectural Vision and Design
Flow and movement define the formal language of the Northeastern University Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex. Dynamic movement systems permeate the project, expand the campus, and bridge two Boston neighborhoods. The six-story building, located on Columbus Avenue, provides 230,000 square feet of research and educational space.
High-performance architecture is created through parametric design and energy modeling. An integrated approach to sustainability was ingrained in the project from the planning stages throughout the design process, impacting everything from the programmatic organization of the building to the design of building enclosure. The central body of the building consists of a large atrium that extends from the ground floor to the six-story ceiling. Much of the research space which borders this main atrium is completely visible to observers, allowing for high levels of transparency between the public and different disciplines.
A Bridge Between Neighborhoods
The Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC) expands the university’s urban campus to the south of a major rail corridor and reconnects the diverse neighborhoods of Fenway and Roxbury with a public landscape and pedestrian bridge. The rail corridor that serves Amtrak, the Orange Line, and commuter trains makes walking or biking from one side to the other difficult, effectively isolating Northeastern's main campus from the Roxbury neighborhood. Constructed on an urban brownfield site consisting of an existing surface parking lot set between two garages, the ISEC represents the completion of the first phase of the newly planned 660,000-sq-ft academic precinct. The site was selected to invest in the Roxbury neighborhood and enables an additional 440,000 sq ft of research, academic, and student housing development on site.
A new pedestrian bridge spans the rail corridor and connects the ISEC to the campus’s open space network and existing science and engineering buildings.
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Collaborative Research and Learning Spaces
The ISEC building was constructed for collaboration and research. The complex contains laboratory and computational research facilities, as well as interactive teaching and learning spaces. The project represents a major expansion of research at Northeastern University and provides a 234,000-square-foot home for four interdisciplinary academic research disciplines: engineering, health sciences, basic sciences and computer science.
ISEC has 6 stories consisting of labs, classrooms, offices, conference rooms, and research facilities. The first floor consists of two 50-seat lecture halls, two 50-seat active learning classrooms, a bicycle storage room, a 24-seat biomaterials teaching lab, a cafe, and a 280-seat auditorium. Floors 2-5 house an array of experimental labs on the rectangular half of the building and contain offices and conference rooms on the rounded half of the building across the atrium. The 6th floor is structurally similar to floors 2-5, but house computational research facilities in place of the laboratories. The building also has a central atrium which extends through all 6 floors and contains the main spiral staircase.
Opening Ceremony: A Celebration of Innovation
Northeastern celebrated the opening of the new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC) on April 3, 2017. Members of the Northeastern and local communities, elected officials, and champions of science research gathered for the ceremony, which filled ISEC’s atrium with visitors and was viewed by thousands more online. Remarks were delivered by President Joseph E. Aoun, National Science Foundation Director France A. Córdova Sen., Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Edward Markey, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, and Rep. Joseph Kennedy III. A panel comprised of Roderic Pettigrew, director, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Engineering, NIH, James Bradner, president, Novartis Institutes of BioMedical Research, Sue Siegel, CEO, GE Ventures, John Manferdelli, executive director, Cybersecurity and Privacy Institute, and Beth Stevens, associate professor at Northeastern spoke as well.
President Joseph E. Aoun noted that ISEC will energize faculty and students to pave the way for breakthroughs and the discovery of new fields. Aoun said that locating the facility in Roxbury was an essential part of the plan. Students from the The Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers, a local and college preparatory high school, where also in attendance.
James C. Bean, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, said ISEC continues Northeastern’s momentum in building its robust research enterprise. Over the past 10 years, he said, Northeastern’s federal research funding has more than doubled, now exceeding $130 million, and the university has recruited more than 565 new tenured and tenure-track faculty across disciplines tied to its research goals.
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Jaclyn Lock, a doctoral student in bioengineering, said she was drawn to Northeastern for its strong training and research programs, and she emphasized the value of the opportunities she’s had to build upon her interdisciplinary research. “ISEC was built to empower us to solve grand challenges,” Lock said.
Project Management and Value Engineering
Hill provided owner’s representative services to Northeastern University (NU) for their new Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC). Hill was engaged by Northeastern near the end of the design development phase of the project. One of Hill’s first tasks was to establish a project control system to manage both project documents as well as project financials. The ISEC project was the first capital project for which the University’s new project control system would be rolled out. Hill’s project team, along with Northeastern staff, was able to establish project protocols that the designer, construction manager, and vendors have maintained for the project. Hill was also responsible for managing and maintaining the overall project budget, facilitating the value management process, consultant contract management, development and maintenance of the master project schedule, design reviews, coordination with client representatives, meeting facilitation, and coordination of project permitting and general project oversight.
Hill facilitated a value management program at the design development phase to create a targeted list of cost reduction opportunities, while maintaining the client’s and design team’s program and design objectives.
EXP: Expanding the Research Horizon
In May 2019, Northeastern proposed a single second building that would complete the complex, EXP, with plans to begin construction in early 2020. The 350,000 sq ft new building was anticipated to take three years to complete and includes dynamic research spaces for driverless cars and humanoid robots. The building was approved by the Boston Planning and Development Agency in October 2019.
EXP is Northeastern University’s new eight-story, 357,000-square-foot facility that will further the horizons of science, engineering, teaching, and creating. Opened in fall 2023, it offers eight floors of occupiable space, including a top-floor executive area; a floor primarily dedicated to computational research, or research that uses computing systems to apply mathematical models for solving problems; four floors of teaching and academic research labs; 15,000 square feet of makerspace throughout the building; a cafe and “Ideation” space overlooking a ground-floor robotics area, and much more. The following College of Engineering-led research institutes and centers are located in EXP, including the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things, Institute for Experiential Robotics, and Institute for NanoSystems Innovation.
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Other Research Facilities at Northeastern
Northeastern University is a comprehensive urban research university with cutting-edge laboratory and research facilities.
Egan Engineering/Science Research Center is a state-of-the-art research facility that houses more than a dozen laboratories for engineering, physics, chemistry and computer science. The Egan Research Center allows for close collaboration among experimentalists, theoreticians, and fabrication experts where researchers can share laboratories for expensive or heavy equipment that can be important for material characterization and related research on this project.
The MGHPCC supports the growing research computing needs of five of the most research-intensive universities in Massachusetts: Northeastern University, Boston University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Massachusetts. Located in Holyoke MA, the MGHPCC provides world-class computational infrastructure, indispensible in the increasingly sensor and data-rich environments of modern science and engineering discovery.
Research Focus
The complex has housed a variety of major research projects. The Human-centered robotics research group develops robots and assistive devices. At ISEC, Northeastern researchers collaborate with partners from academia, industry, and government to pursue use-inspired research that solves global challenges.
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