EXP | 795 Columbus Avenue | Northeastern University

Looks a lot better than that stack of books soon to rise on Comm Ave.
 
For people like me who always struggle to load the massive renders Northeastern puts at full scale in these PDFs... To me the biggest change is they used bigger trees in the render lol...
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FhtM6uZ.jpg

zOKArhU.jpg
 
How will all this look in 25 years? I think these buildings are slick AF and seem to have a high quality of fit and finish, but will this look dated in the future?
 
Many, many universities are substantially expanding their science+engineering facilities in our present time. But because these facilities tend to take up a ton of space and have tough utilities/infrastructure demands, many institutions choose to build these sci/eng expansion facilities apart from their core/existing academic campus; sometimes on some distant annex parcels that require students to take a shuttle bus to get to, or at a minimum, a long walk that feels as though one is exiting one campus...traversing a non-campus realm...then entering a separate campus. This absolutely affects the mindset of the residential student: whether one has to exit where one takes one's liberal arts courses to go to the engineering building - or not - absolutely affects whether one perceives an education to be a holistic experience consisting of liberal and technical subcomponents, or whether one perceives one of these parts as some add-on.

Where I'm going with this is that: I really, really appreciate how NU took the expense to integrate these sci/tech facilities with the main campus, despite the pragmatic reality of the available space being across the tracks. The wide, well designed pedestrian bridge is great...especially given all the constraints: high walls/suicide barriers...those functional/regulatory challenges didn't stop the designers from prioritizing making this sci/tech annex look and feel like a natural outgrowth of the main campus.

Great job by the designers and funders on this one.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Many, many universities are substantially expanding their science+engineering facilities in our present time. But because these facilities tend to take up a ton of space and have tough utilities/infrastructure demands, many institutions choose to build these sci/eng expansion facilities apart from their core/existing academic campus; sometimes on some distant annex parcels that require students to take a shuttle bus to get to, or at a minimum, a long walk that feels as though one is exiting one campus...traversing a non-campus realm...then entering a separate campus. This absolutely affects the mindset of the residential student: whether one has to exit where one takes one's liberal arts courses to go to the engineering building - or not - absolutely affects whether one perceives an education to be a holistic experience consisting of liberal and technical subcomponents, or whether one perceives one of these parts as some add-on.

Where I'm going with this is that: I really, really appreciate how NU took the expense to integrate these sci/tech facilities with the main campus, despite the pragmatic reality of the available space being across the tracks. The wide, well designed pedestrian bridge is great...especially given all the constraints: high walls/suicide barriers...those functional/regulatory challenges didn't stop the designers from prioritizing making this sci/tech annex look and feel like a natural outgrowth of the main campus.

Great job by the designers and funders on this one.
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Agreed and having their new student housing across the tracks as well means the campus naturally extends in this direction and not only just for the science/engineering division but as a natural extension.
 
stick n move said:
Agreed and having their new student housing across the tracks as well means the campus naturally extends in this direction and not only just for the science/engineering division but as a natural extension.
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Which is exactly why so many campus groups seem so against it because "gentrification bad" including when it's redeveloping previously abandoned parking lots into very nicely done developments.
 
stick n move said:
Agreed and having their new student housing across the tracks as well means the campus naturally extends in this direction and not only just for the science/engineering division but as a natural extension.
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The Renaissance Park building is on South Campus and houses he College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
 
HelloBostonHi said:
For people like me who always struggle to load the massive renders Northeastern puts at full scale in these PDFs... To me the biggest change is they used bigger trees in the render lol...
Izrho0R.jpg

FhtM6uZ.jpg

zOKArhU.jpg
Click to expand...
One of the recommendations of civic groups was that there be more trees and less pavement since this area is a "heat island".
 
TomOfBoston said:
The Renaissance Park building is on South Campus and houses he College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
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Thanks; I meant my comment more generally, but realize I might have gotten some of the exact details of the NU experience wrong above. But I have visited the NU campus recently and traversed that new ped bridge myself and just wanted to say that it really did feel as though these new facilities are naturally connected to/an outgrowth of the existing facilities on the other side of the tracks, which is an impressive feat given the vast expanse of the trackbed / regulatory challenges of a pedestrian overpass bridge. I contrast this with other universities I'm aware of that have plunked their sci/eng expansion facilities in much less thoughtful ways.
 
bdurden & tom, do we really need to have a BU/NU pissing contest here & in the BU Data Sciences Ctr. thread? Both schools are thriving and doing lots of interesting things lately. We should be so lucky to be in a city that has so much thriving higher ed.
 
bigpicture7 said:
bdurden & tom, do we really need to have a BU/NU pissing contest here & in the BU Data Sciences Ctr. thread? Both schools are thriving and doing lots of interesting things lately. We should be so lucky to be in a city that has so much thriving higher ed.
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Totally agree.

Will remove myself from the forum.
 
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^i sincerely hope you don't mean all of aB. I for one really appreciate some of the insights/info you've shared recently. Just pausing to take a deep breath sounds like a better plan, IMO (y)
 
Czervik.Construction said:
How will all this look in 25 years? I think these buildings are slick AF and seem to have a high quality of fit and finish, but will this look dated in the future?
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They almost certainly will. I actually don't care for them much. I bike through that area just about daily and I specifically don't like the round building that's there now, which looks like a parking garage to me. The companion proposed here also looks like a garage.
 
I think they'll age well just for standing out in an area of plastic panelled cookie cutter condos and glass towers, they're certainly unique. Don't think anyone can walk past the current ISEC without at least giving it a second look, whereas people happily obliviously wander past Lightview (which is exactly how it was designed I suppose)
 
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