Center for Computing & Data Sciences, Boston University

Just as data sciences is the unifier, the new building is located and designed to mark a new hub for the Boston campus, and the dynamic change as a university for the 21st century. The design offers a vision for the building as an extension of the street, to activate and animate Commonwealth Avenue. It focuses on forging continuity and connectivity for the campus, presently divided by Commonwealth Avenue. It envisions Commonwealth Avenue as a seam that unifies both sides of the campus. It also integrates a network of laneways and landscaped courts at the street level to connect to the townhouses along the street. The corner of Commonwealth and Granby establishes a gateway to the Charles River and asserts the presence of the Computational Sciences as the new center of the campus. The tower is set back from the podium to mitigate its impact on the street and to align the height of the podium to buildings along Commonwealth. The base addresses the street and is transparent and porous to activate ground floor animation on Commonwealth Avenue. It has outdoor gathering spaces at both ends and acquires the street as an urban porch for study and gathering. Inside, the ground floor and upper level of the podium are expansively public, and contain a series of zones for interaction: the Café, the Cascading Stair, the Street Studio and the Fireplace Lounge. Vertical Campus As the University expands, the concept of the vertical campus addresses growth and intensification, effectively organizing the departments of the Computational Sciences Building into academic neighborhoods within the podium and tower. A central atrium with a spiraling, interconnecting stair intensify opportunities for exchange and spontaneous interaction while providing visual connectivity to all levels of the Podium. The tower is organized as a series of stacked floorplates with outdoor terraces. The transparent envelope maximizes views of the campus, city and river and the form provides a distinct profile on the city skyline from all directions, and especially from across the river.