The LEED Gold Center for Student Services is Boston University’s new gateway to campus student life and services. The building reflects the University’s commitment to “providing students with comprehensive and seamless services”, in an environment that supports a mission of learning and creative development outside the classroom.
The building is Bruner/Cott’s second for the university – and the outcome of an invited design competition that included six Boston firms. The university sought creative approaches to developing a center that integrated services and social activities, and established a new institutional presence on campus and in the community.
The Center anchors a prominent corner in Back Bay, carefully balancing the historic, 19th-century residential character of Bay State Road with the commercial and institutional context of Commonwealth Avenue and Kenmore Square. The building creates a visible street presence, under one roof, for four floors of student academic services: the Center for Writing, Academic and Pre-Professional Advising, Student Programs and Leadership, the Center for Career Development and the Educational Resource Center, and a campus dining facility, all together with offices and meeting rooms, lounges and other related community spaces.
The airy, light-filled two-story 1000-seat dining hall has quickly become a new social center and a popular dining spot on campus. A separate late-night dining venue and bakery on the basement floor is open to the public, strengthening the center’s role in connecting the campus to the community and its diverse surroundings.
Sustainable design measures include energy efficient LED lighting and daylighting control systems, air-to-air heat recovery, active chilled beams with DOAS, indoor air quality monitoring system, double insulated exterior wall assembly, and green roof terrace on the 3rd floor overlooking the Charles River and 100% on site storm water retention and infiltration.
2013 Associated General Contractors of Massachusetts | Build New England Honor Award
2013 American School & University | Bronze Award, Educational Interiors
2013 Illuminating Engineering Society | Regional Award for Excellence in Lighting Design
2013 Environmental Design & Construction Magazine | Excellence in Design
2013 Learning by Design | Grand Prize, New Construction
COMPLETED
2012
SIZE
120,000 sf
COST (2012)
$48 million