The design of Boston University’s Data Science building is sure to turn some heads when it completes in 2022. The 17-story, 345,000-sf building will resemble a stack of books rising up from a podium on the university’s central campus. For the first time, BU’s mathematics, statistics, and computer science departments will be under one roof, maximizing collaboration, interaction, and interconnectivity.
The building’s transparent, porous podium will occupy the entire width of the site to complete the streetscape and generate maximum group floor animation on Commonwealth Avenue. It will rise four-stories and accommodate the larger programmatic volumes and offer a series of zones for interaction, including the Cafe, the Cascading Stair, the Street Studio, and the Fireplace Lounge.
Atop the podium will sit an additional 13 floors, each one slightly off center from the one below to create the stack of books aesthetic. Floors three through five will house the mathematics and statistics department (the fifth floor will also have a lunch space and meeting rooms). Floors six through 10 will comprise mainly space for the computer science department. The interdisciplinary Hariri Institute will be located on the top six floors, with floors 11 and 12 housing administrative offices.
See Also: Denning House completes at Stanford University
The building will include a series of terraced platforms for small group interaction, whiteboard walls, and a collaboration ramp stippled with gathering spaces.
On the team: BRA (MEP), Entuitive + LeMessurier (structural engineer), Richard Burck (landscape architect), and Nitsch Engineering (civil engineer). Construction is expected to begin this spring.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Giants 300 University Report
University construction spending is 13% higher than a year ago—mostly for residence halls and infrastructure on public campuses—and is expected to slip less than 5% over the next two years. However, the value of starts dropped about 10% in recent months and will not return to the 2007–08 peak for about two years.
| Aug 11, 2010
Team Tames Impossible Site
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the nation's oldest technology university, has long prided itself on its state-of-the-art design and engineering curriculum. Several years ago, to call attention to its equally estimable media and performing arts programs, RPI commissioned British architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw to design the Curtis R.
| Aug 11, 2010
Setting the Green Standard For Community Colleges
“Ohlone College Newark Campus Is the Greenest College in the World!” That bold statement was the official tagline of the festivities surrounding the August 2008 grand opening of Ohlone College's LEED Platinum Newark (Calif.) Center for Health Sciences and Technology. The 130,000-sf, $58 million community college facility stacks up against some of the greenest college buildings in th...
| Aug 11, 2010
University of Arizona College of Medicine
The hope was that a complete restoration and modernization would bring life back to three neoclassic beauties that formerly served as Phoenix Union High School—but time had not treated them kindly. Built in 1911, one year before Arizona became the country's 48th state, the historic high school buildings endured nearly a century of wear and tear and suffered major water damage and years of...
| Aug 11, 2010
Cronkite Communication School Speaks to Phoenix Redevelopment
The city of Phoenix has sprawling suburbs, but its outward expansion caused the downtown core to stagnate—a problem not uncommon to other major metropolitan areas. Reviving the city became a hotbed issue for Mayor Phil Gordon, who envisioned a vibrant downtown that offered opportunities for living, working, learning, and playing.