Novartis Campus | 181-211 Mass Ave, 22 Windsor Street | Kendall Square | Cambridge

Re: Novartis Expansion

The "green" in the renderings could, in fact, be parking (as it is now). The article does not mention green space, only a courtyard linking it to MIT.
 
Re: Novartis Expansion

The article does mention green space:
Sieniewicz described a site plan (see figure) with a large open green central space in an area with ?virtually no green space?;
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Re: Novartis Expansion

Regardless of the planning of the space, which at this point, does not seem definite, I am quite pleased with the architects involved so far. Chan Krieger is a local favorite, and Maya Lin will surely deliver (although I don't believe she has done anything at this scale before). It will be interesting to see who the third architect is.
 
Re: Novartis Expansion

kennedy said:
Regardless of the planning of the space, which at this point, does not seem definite, I am quite pleased with the architects involved so far. Chan Krieger is a local favorite, and Maya Lin will surely deliver (although I don't believe she has done anything at this scale before). It will be interesting to see who the third architect is.
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I'm intrigued to know why Maya Lin will 'surely deliver'. In her 30 year career she's never built a new urban project (non-private residence, non-renovation), and hasn't come close to anything approaching this scale.

Clearly past architectural experience is not necessarily the best or most predictive attribute. I don't want to implying that she won't deliver, just wondering why someone would automatically think that she would...
 
Re: Novartis Expansion

Well, I would be inclined to predict she would deliver that based on past quality of her projects has been very good, if not phenomenal (in my opinion). Coupled with a firm with plenty of large scale, urban experience (CKS), I think her creative input will lead to a great final product. At least, I hope so.
 
Re: Novartis Expansion

This is an old article but still available.
And the campus can be read as part of its carefully tailored image. In eight years Mr. Vasella is halfway through completing a plan to transform a dilapidated chemical complex into one of the most ambitious undertakings in a decade ? one known for its architectural one-upmanship. He has built 10 research and office buildings and has plans to complete up to seven more. Mimicking a formula that has become the norm for big-money development in cities as disparate as Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi, he has hired an army of world-renowned architects ? from Frank Gehry to Rafael Moneo to Alvaro Siza and the team of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa ? to design the individual buildings.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/a...ta1&adxnnlx=1305120281-9f18NWGsKSy+XGTl7nsaVw
 
Re: Novartis Expansion

The Gehry building on Novartis's campus in Basil (mentioned in PaulC's link, above) is featured in this month's ArchRecord. I've never been a fan, but this is a pretty cool building, because at last, you can see its structure.

Novartis_Basel.jpg
 
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Re: Novartis Expansion

The fact that Novartis appears to take their architecture seriously has me very optimistic about this new complex.
 
Re: Novartis Expansion

Damn, seeing this thread get bumped had me hopeful we'd be seeing a render! Hopefully soon.
 
Re: Novartis Expansion

There is a pretty large area fenced-off within this fenced-off lot. In the bright sunlight, showing through the 15'-high screened fence, I could see what looked like a mock-up. I would describe it as a masonry or concrete wall full of many random rectangular voids. Think Simmons Hall with irregularly spaced and sized openings instead of a regular grid.

This fenced-off area seemed a lot larger than the typical exterior mock-up, so who knows what else is going on behind that giant fence. If someone doesn't get to it before me, I'll try to get some photos soon.
 
Re: Novartis Expansion

As of this afternoon the facade mock up is uncovered. They consist of two different colored masonry "stone" walls with random blocks missing. Behind the masonry is a glass wall. I'll try to get a picture this afternoon. It's strange.
 
Re: Novartis Expansion

Looks like Herzog & de Meuron, circa 2003. I don't object, but I need some context...
 
Re: Novartis Expansion

Makes me appreciate kengo kuma so much more. "Randomness" is getting weaker and weaker visually for me
 
Re: Novartis Expansion

a bit off topic -- but how many people know what was formerly produced in the building to the top left in the photo? -- I presume that this building is coming down or at least being repackaged
 
Re: Novartis Expansion

It's the former Analog Devices building. Analog Devices is a semiconductor manufacturing company. The building isn't included in the massing diagrams. I would assume it is coming down.
 
Re: Novartis Expansion

crash575 said:
It's the former Analog Devices building. Analog Devices is a semiconductor manufacturing company. The building isn't included in the massing diagrams. I would assume it is coming down.
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Crash -- too bad -- that was where Analog Devices pioneered manufacture of micro acclerometers using polysilicon surface micromachining -- essentially carving the moving parts (masses and springs) out of a thin soid sheet of silicon

ADI has made several hundred million microacclerometers over the past 20 year, many of them in that building in Cambridge -- kind of ironic since most people thought that manufacturing had long since stopped in Cambridge

ADI and later competitors mass produced devices which revolutionaized measurement of motion for applications from air bags (the firstby Saab in 1991) to game controllers, golf swing analyzers, pointing devices for amateur astronomy, and orientation sensors in cameras and cell phones, directionl drilling for oil, etc.
 
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