Harvard Enterprise Research Campus | 100 Western Avenue | Allston

shmessy said:
Very well said about the exterior of these buildings.

Yet how does one explain the difference in the comparative INTERIORS?

Harvard (6/30/2021 $53.25 billion endowment) SEC
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Northeastern (6/30/2020 Endowment $1.09 billion) ISEC
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The first one looks very 2020s understated research lab-ish, but the second one looks 1980s, almost Po-mo in its gaudiness.
 
Charlie_mta said:
The first one looks very 2020s understated research lab-ish, but the second one looks 1980s, almost Po-mo in its gaudiness.
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Was it Harvard's intention for it's SEC to be "understated research lab-ish"? How many understated research labs cost over $1 billion to build???

Perhaps their aim was what home interior designers call "Shabby Chic" :)

Frankly, I think Harvard struck out on this one and much of what they've done in Allston so far the past 5 years. I'm no hater - I am rooting for them. I hope they can up their game.
 
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Having grown up in Cambridge pretty much in the shadow of Harvard University in the 1950s and 60s, my observation has been that Harvard is a bit elitist towards the neighborhoods it is expanding into. In the early/mid 1960s there was a war going on between Harvard's desire to expand into Cambridge neighborhoods, and the people who lived in those neighborhoods. If it wasn't for the grit and tenaciousness of the "townies", Harvard would have gobbled up the area around Putnam Ave south of Mass Ave, plus other neighborhoods, and that fine-grained, diverse area of today would have looked instead like a corporate office park. I have a bias, I guess, in this because of that experience. I see Harvard still as steam-rollering over neighborhoods and not trying very hard to fit into their context, not connecting well with them and failing to build up the urban experience. I personally think this stems from a kind of elitism and looking down on the great unwashed, from Harvard's lofty view.
 
The original design for the SEC (four buildings at a cost of maybe $1.5 billion in 2022 dollars)) was radically different from what was built. When the Great Recession hit, Harvard's coffers were empty (the university was so illiquid it had to float bonds to generate cash to pay day-to-day expenses), and construction was stopped at grade, and the project mothballed. I don't recall ever seeing renderings of the interiors for the original design, so I have no idea whether the design as built was VE'd from its predecessor.

It would be a whole separate thread in another aB forum to discuss the varying strategies of Harvard, MIT, and Northeastern when it comes to spending on capital projects. For example, MIT spends boatloads of money on commercial buildings, the return on which is a key revenue source when it comes to MIT's annual budget. MIT has committed to spending $750 million on capital construction on its 10 acres of Volpe. Harvard seems content with just collecting ground rents, but is spending $1.5 billion or more on reconstructing the 'river houses'. (<< And talk about a mega-project almost entirely ignored on aB.) Northeastern lets the private sector build residence halls, and foregoes, at least for a good while, the 'cash cow' revenue stream from 'dorms'.
 
stellarfun said:
The original design for the SEC (four buildings at a cost of maybe $1.5 billion in 2022 dollars)) was radically different from what was built. When the Great Recession hit, Harvard's coffers were empty (the university was so illiquid it had to float bonds to generate cash to pay day-to-day expenses), and construction was stopped at grade, and the project mothballed. I don't recall ever seeing renderings of the interiors for the original design, so I have no idea whether the design as built was VE'd from its predecessor.

It would be a whole separate thread in another aB forum to discuss the varying strategies of Harvard, MIT, and Northeastern when it comes to spending on capital projects. For example, MIT spends boatloads of money on commercial buildings, the return on which is a key revenue source when it comes to MIT's annual budget. MIT has committed to spending $750 million on capital construction on its 10 acres of Volpe. Harvard seems content with just collecting ground rents, but is spending $1.5 billion or more on reconstructing the 'river houses'. (<< And talk about a mega-project almost entirely ignored on aB.) Northeastern lets the private sector build residence halls, and foregoes, at least for a good while, the 'cash cow' revenue stream from 'dorms'.
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I would love to see a thread on that subject. Throw in BU, BC, and mentions of smaller colleges (e.g. Simmons with its campus consolidation)!
 
#bancars said:
I would love to see a thread on that subject. Throw in BU, BC, and mentions of smaller colleges (e.g. Simmons with its campus consolidation)!
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As time allows, I'll try and pull together an overview of how endowment values, long-term debt, donor generosity, and the cost of capital projects intersect. Don't look for this in the next several days, though.
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A possible clue of Harvard having to make economies when it came to SEAS, as built, is that it remodeled the former WGBH building on the south side of Western Ave to serve as the back-office administrative support for SEAS. IIRC, this building was demolished in the original scheme.
 
This is still atrocious looking and it baffles me how it's the work of Studio Gang. Such an incoherent mess of some structural idea (a treehouse? really?). Could they even bother to properly orient the texture map of the wood grain on the exterior beams? Essentially the signature design move of the entire project??

All the big names Harvard got for this development and this is the result...
 
Yea, if there is one entity that can afford to use nice materials, build something beautiful and timelessly classic, its them.
 
GW2500 said:
Yea, if there is one entity that can afford to use nice materials, build something beautiful and timelessly classic, its them.
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Harvard is not paying for these buildings. Tishman Speyer is. Tishman Speyer holds a 95 year lease on the land. Given the longevity of the lease, perhaps Tishman Speyer will demolish some/most of these buildings in 40-45 years and start anew.
 
stellarfun said:
Harvard is not paying for these buildings. Tishman Speyer is. Tishman Speyer holds a 95 year lease on the land. Given the longevity of the lease, perhaps Tishman Speyer will demolish some/most of these buildings in 40-45 years and start anew.
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Why not just build non shitty buildings in the first place and then you can just freshen them up in 40 years?
 
stick n move said:
Why not just build non shitty buildings in the first place and then you can just freshen them up in 40 years?
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They can't be so shitty that no one will pay the rents you're seeking.

Commercial real estate is depreciated over 39 years, in a straight-line method. Once fully depreciated, taxes can go up because gross income from the rents received is no longer offset, in part., by the depreciation expense. MIT's depreciation expense in 2021 on its buildings and equipment was over $200 million.

Presuming that Harvard takes ownership of whatever Tishman Speyer has built in 90 years time or so, for the next version of these buildings, Harvard might say to Tishman-Speyer, we want buildings with a 100-year design life, and to be 'landmark' type buildings, or Robert Stern like buildings, or whatever. And we also want low-maintenance buildings, so no Frank Gehry adventures in angular design.
 
www.bostonglobe.com

Harvard’s big plans in Allston face growing pushback from the neighbors - The Boston Globe

A coalition of community groups sent a letter to Mayor Michelle Wu over the weekend, requesting additional income-restricted housing, tree canopy coverage, and more on the acres the university intends to develop.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

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Yea... Harvard's gonna win that fight in the long term. They can simply outlive and outlast everybody and any mayor.
 
shmessy said:
www.bostonglobe.com

Harvard’s big plans in Allston face growing pushback from the neighbors - The Boston Globe

A coalition of community groups sent a letter to Mayor Michelle Wu over the weekend, requesting additional income-restricted housing, tree canopy coverage, and more on the acres the university intends to develop.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

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Yep, time marches on. Article after article written about it but in the end the inevitable happens. I feel the people that were there in the 60s were most likely holding out for the payday but there are always the people that live 40 years beyond the structure's life and have to move for safety; as well as progress. The Land Boston Forgot The People Who Stay Barry's Corner
 
dhawkins said:
Yep, time marches on. Article after article written about it but in the end the inevitable happens. I feel the people that were there in the 60s were most likely holding out for the payday but there are always the people that live 40 years beyond the structure's life and have to move for safety; as well as progress. The Land Boston Forgot The People Who Stay Barry's Corner
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I was just a teenager when this happened, but I do remember the uproar it made on the WMEX night time talk shows in the 1960s. Back then, urban renewal and eminent domain were so brutally and unfairly administered that it's no surprise today's NIMBYS are so virulent, as they should be.
 
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