ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge has been honored with a Design Excellence Award for Higher Education Facilities by the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) for its design of the New Research Building, a 739,288 s/f research facility at Harvard Medical School.
The BSA Awards program, initiated in 2003, celebrates college and university facilities and offers exemplary project awards for design excellence. This year, a five-person jury representing the BSA examined 86 assorted projects and ultimately acknowledged 10 unique designs, which included ARC's design of the New Research Building.
"The building makes a big impact, includes a 196,000 s/f below-grade parking garage, but the superb in-context interior spaces, finely detailed, create scale that is both eloquent and delicate," said the jury in their comments.
The New Research Building is, to date, the largest completed research and education building in Harvard University's history. With 430,000 s/f of research space, the NRB houses over 800 researchers and staff from a variety of disciplines. Taking into account the volume of building occupants, ARC's design emphasized the use of clustered lab space to facilitate information sharing between scientists and hospital-based faculty.
Site-specific issues were resolved through ARC's implementation of an L-shaped design, which helped relate the facility to adjacent structures and streetscape. This design is credited with the successful assimilation of the sizable New Research Building into an already densely developed neighborhood. "Beautiful, light and techy, the project feels inviting and elegant," commented the jury.
"We are extremely pleased with the outcome of the New Research Building. It was an exciting project and we are proud to have contributed a unique, sustainable design that will serve the Harvard community, and Longwood Medical Area, for years to come," said Arthur Cohen, AIA, principal in charge of the project at ARC.