On March 5th at the Hyatt Regency Boston, a packed room heard from Thomas Glynn, CEO of Harvard Allston Land Company and Marika Reuling, Managing Director for Allston Initiatives at Harvard on Harvard’s ongoing Allston campus transformation.
Harvard is more than just Cambridge, it is Allston too and larger at 360 acres compared to 240 acres in Cambridge. As other neighborhoods in Boston have begun to transform the opportunities for Allston has grown with Western Avenue ready development.
Allston is in perfect loaction, with being so close to Kendall Square, Longwood Medical, and other areas of innovation. The goal of Harvard’s master plan in Allston is to create a hub on innovation and collaborations that are connected to transit and neighborhoods.
In Allston, Harvard’s Science and Engineering Complex is under construction and set to open in Fall 2020. The massive project will cost the university around $1 billion and feature 535,000 square feet of academic space. The building has been thoughtfully designed with the community at large in mind, not just college students and faculty. The first two floors of the building have been designed as public space with 70,000 square feet of green space surrounding the project.
Harvard just completed The District Energy Facility in Allston, which is a 58,000 square foot project under construction that will provide heating, cooling, and electricity to support Harvard's academic and research activities in Allston. Harvard is also working to bring local businesses to the area and making improvements to the neighborhood by adding streetscape changes, more bike lanes, and they have opened the Harvard Ed Portal in Allston, to bring various education and enrichment programs to the community.
The Harvard Enterprise Research Campus is next to be developed in Allston. The master plan for the first 14 acres of this site was approved last March, which include 400,000 square feet of office/lab space, 250,000 square feet of hotel/conference center space containing 200 rooms and 250,000 square feet of residential space containing 250 units. Glynn let attendees know that the RFP will be issued soon and Harvard will look to partner with third parties for the residential, commercial, and retail spaces. With another 22 acres of potential development on the Enterprise Research Campus, Harvard aims to provide a place, where students, faculty and participants across the Greater Boston ecosystem for research, discovery, and innovation.
