Completing Harvard Medical School’s North Quad, the New Research Building (NRB), wrapped around the adjacent Harvard Institutes of Medicine (HIM), houses 800 HMS researchers and staff as well as HMS faculty from affiliated hospitals. A Conference Center, connecting the NRB with HIM, is readily identifiable from both inside and outside the building by a prominent stainless steel clad form that encloses an amphitheater and a conference/seminar rooms. Within, the 480-seat amphitheater is clad with louvered cherry wall panels and animated by sophisticated, multi-colored lighting. An adjacent transparent, spacious, and double-height atrium functions as a dynamic reception area and break-out space for Conference Center events. Offering dramatic exterior views of Boston on the upper research floors, two-story “sky lobbies” not only house lunchrooms, conference and lounge areas but also facilitate interaction between floors. In the lab environment, gray dyed-oak finishes are used to visually transition between the red oak traditionally used in Harvard’s research labs and the cherry finishes used in the public spaces.

AIA New England Merit Award for Design Excellence, 2009 / BSA Higher Education Facilities Design Award 2007 / BSA Design Award, 2005

Project photography by Warren Patterson, ESTO