College of Computer & Information Science and Residence Hall, Northeastern University
Boston
William Rawn Associates, Architects

Anything but ivory, this college tower engages the city skyline

© Alan Karchmer

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The College of Computer and Information Science & Residence Hall (Building H) is the seventh building constructed in William Rawn Associates’ eight-building master plan for Northeastern University’s West Campus. The university embarked on this construction program as it transformed itself from a commuter school into a residential one. Located across the street from the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, Building H, a new 18-story tower containing classrooms and residences, announces the university’s presence along Huntington Avenue—and on the urban skyline.

The tower’s subtly varied glass face engages the city and celebrates the building’s mix of academic and residential uses. Its lower four floors hold the university’s 70,000-square-foot College of Computer and Information Science. These learning spaces are clearly visible to the public through the tower’s transparent glass façade, which showcases the energy within and activates the campus’s urban edge. Residential apartments housed on floors 5 to 16 of the tower—187 beds in 42 apartments—also help bring a 24-hour presence to the campus and the city.

The tower juxtaposes two elemental forms of equal height, a metal tower and a narrow glass sliver, enhancing the building’s slenderness and creating a strong presence along the street. At the top of the building, a curved notch is cut from the metal tower, accentuating the glass sliver and creating a memorable skyline. This north-facing sliver uses clear, low-e glass to maximize transparency. To amplify that transparency, the glass sliver extends in plan beyond the metal tower, 15 feet to the east and 10 feet to the west. These back-lit projections contain conference rooms for the computer department as well as living rooms within the residential apartments. In the metal tower, a clear, anodized aluminum curtain wall creates a lively skin that reflects and changes with the effects of varied light. Within a highly repetitive pattern, fenestration enhances the liveliness of the metal skin: each window module includes a recessed clear glass window with a narrow fritted glass sidelight that is flush with the surface of the metal. In sunlight, the fritted glass sidelight appears to be part of the metal wall, while in shade or at night it clearly becomes part of the fenestration.

Programmatically, Building H contains an unusual combination of uses: undergraduate residential apartments superimposed on a major academic college that serves both graduate and undergraduate students. This unusual mix provides a counterpoint to the increasing over-specialization of buildings and academic disciplines found on the typical American college campus. A two-story, glass-walled interior corridor, which the architects liken to a street, serves as a spine connecting the front door of the residence hall with the most active spaces of the college, including computer labs and classrooms.

Formal name of Project:
College of Computer & Information Science and Residence Hall, Northeastern University - Building H

Location:
Boston

Gross square footage:
167,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$47 Million

Owner:
Northeastern University www.northeastern.edu

Architect:
William Rawn Associates, Architects
101 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02108
617-423-3470 tel.
www.rawnarch.com