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

itchy said:
What is that massive field in front of Simmons Hall at MIT? Is it MIT's sports fields? Is it all fully utilized/used? Are there any plans to build on any of it?

Seems like a lot of space. I'd be inclined to think at least some of it would be developed by MIT...
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MIT athletic fields.

No,

No.
 
itchy said:
What is that massive field in front of Simmons Hall at MIT? Is it MIT's sports fields? Is it all fully utilized/used? Are there any plans to build on any of it?

Seems like a lot of space. I'd be inclined to think at least some of it would be developed by MIT...
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Itch -- MIT has one of the most active intramural athletics programs as well as fully participating in nearly 2 dozen interscholastic sports -- the place is full of gnurds who think that they are Jocks and increasingly Jockettes

Briggs Field is as sacred to MIT as Boston Common is to the City of Boston

That said just like the Common having been dug-up for the T and the Common Garage there has been encroachment onto the original Briggs Field at the edges for athletic facility buildings in the east and parking for housing in the west.

But its fairly easy to say that there will not be any significant buildings
 
MIT has enough parking lots and single story buildings east of Mass ave to last them at least another 20 years.
 
whighlander said:
Also note that the former MIT graduate dorm Ashdown House of the Charles [originally the Riverbank Court Hotel 1900 Architect: H. B. Ball .... Builder: George A. Fuller Co. ] ---- shares the same type of tops on the faux gothic towers

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Further note on Ashdown House. It holds the award currently for most disgusting mechanical room I have been in, and most dangerous high pressure steam installation I have squeezed by. I did enjoy the pub in the first floor however.

I'm always amazed at the conditions of buildings in some of the most prestigious institutions.
 
SeamusMcFly said:
Further note on Ashdown House. It holds the award currently for most disgusting mechanical room I have been in, and most dangerous high pressure steam installation I have squeezed by. I did enjoy the pub in the first floor however.

I'm always amazed at the conditions of buildings in some of the most prestigious institutions.
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The Ashdown you're talking about is the new incarnation. Whigh is talking about Old Ashdown (which is now Maseeh). Anyway, I suspect the building I live in (Eastgate) might be worse, considering we had an elevator fail pretty catastrophically a few months ago.
 
Mit_ashdown_house.barun.jpg


This joint. Which I thought was a fantastic looking building, but I'm pretty sure it was graduate housing. Which surprised me even more. Because, they are paying even more.
 
 
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Even though it's only 4 stories, the Mass Ave frontage looks positively massive.
 
Very excited to see how the cladding of the 4-story section will look. The rest of it is coming out very nicely so far.
 
Very happy that this is really breaking the mold around here for the big box labs.
It's still huge and sprawling, but it is interesting and has a lot of different looks going on.

The roundy part at Albany and Mass Ave. should end up good. And, the setback to the narrow high rise part above it makes it not so imposing from that corner.

The stepped portions rising up to the gerbil tub are also interesting if nothing else. Looks like they'll have one heckuva open auditorium for company meetings as well. Does that stay cantilevered once skinned, or will it be boxed in?
 
Talking at work this morning about this project and all the others in this area, made me posit, what the potential would be to add an intermediate red line stop between Kendall and Central to serve all the new workers in this corridor.

There are already a number of people right there, and centralizing Pfizer, Novartis, and Millenium/Takeda all within a few blocks will be adding thousands more. It looks like there is about a mile between the two existing stations, so putting one halfway would be about the distance from South Station to Park St., so it wouldn't seem too close.

Should work one right into 610 North since that is on hold....

I know it really belongs in the build a better boston thread or whatever, but the 2,000 employees moving to this campus would be the largest influx and possible impetus for a move like this.
 
cozzyd said:
Ah ok, well since 2008, https://housing.mit.edu/node/5235 is Ashdown. The former Ashdown was renovated and is now an undergrad dorm. The pub moved to new Ashdown as well.
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Cozzyd -- you got most of the story:

Mit_ashdown_house.barun.jpg


Originally built in 1901 as the Riverbank Court Hotel

MIT acquired it in 1937 and used it for Graduate House from 1938 [renaming it "Ashdown House" after its first faculty housemaster, Prof. Avery Ashdown of the Chemistry department]

in June 1943 -- Graduate House was "occupied for the duration" by
nine-hundred apprentice seamen (V-12 unit) pursuing undergraduate studies of special value to the Navy. The graduate students were scattered in rooms spread over greater Boston and Cambridge. In February of 1946, the V-12 unit moved out and graduate students returned back to Graduate House.

After the Navy undergraduates departed, there would be many more discussions of a permanent conversation of the building into an undergraduate residence. Discussions on the topic emerged in the 1950s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. A final decision to convert the building to an undergraduate residence was not made until 2008.

Graduate students were moved to a new Ashdown House (NW35) located in northwest campus.

In September 2010, MIT announced a $24 million gift from Fariborz Maseeh ScD '90, which funded the renovation.
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http://wiki.mitadmissions.org/Maseeh_Hall

Restored and converted to undergrad housing [Maseeh Hall] with Howard dining room replacing the Muddy Charles Pub
 
armpitsOFmight said:
Massive! I look forward to them making more gas-x pills!!!!!!
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Pits -- a bit more than that -- Novartis says that the Cambridge Campus is known as the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR)
http://www.nibr.com/cs/www.nibr.com/downloads/about/NIBR-Cambridge-FactSheet.pdf
Headquarters for a Global Network of Science
Headquarters for the global drug discovery network for Novartis. NIBR is comprised of more than 6,000 scientists, physicians, and business professionals working together across 10 campuses around the world – 1,600 in Cambridge.

Committed to discovering new medicines to help patients with high unmet medical need, we work to push the boundaries of science.

Cambridge is home to research in oncology, ophthalmology, diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders, neuroscience, and cardiovascular conditions.

Other focus areas include discovery chemistry, biologics, pathway biology, and translational medicine.

Across all of our disease areas, we map complex protein signaling networks inside of
cells, known as molecular signaling pathways.

At the research/clinical interface, our translational medicine experts inform our discovery, so that the best medicines reach the right patients, safely and effectively.

Industry and Academic Collaborations
Cancer, stem cells, Next Generation Sequencing, bioinformatics, and immunology are a few of the areas NIBR is working in with academic collaborators and medical centers, and many biotech companies based right here in Cambridge. Why? To bring together
the expertise and ideas wherever they may be, to advance our understanding of disease, and develop better medicines.

Develop your Career at Novartis
Novartis is the largest corporate employer in Cambridge with more than 2,000 associates.
We are proud of our open, collaborative, and dynamic work environment that supports a
team approach to scientific discovery. At NIBR, team members can be across the hall or across the ocean. We offer a variety of opportunities for professional growth and development to foster a culture that values diversity, collaboration, and great science.

State-of-the-Art Drug Discovery Campus
Novartis Cambridge occupies about 1.2 million square feet of laboratory and office space and is investing more than $600 million to expand the research campus on Massachusetts Avenue. The new campus is designed to create an environment where
drug discovery teams can thrive. The internal spaces will be modular and flexible, suited to meet the needs of our teams working to change the practice of medicine
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