UMass Boston Breaks Ground on $155 Million Integrated Sciences Complex

This summer, visitors to the UMass Boston campus have been greeted with the sight of cranes, pile drivers, and other construction equipment at the university's entrance.

But in just two years, the construction will be replaced by state-of-the-art wet and dry research laboratories, teaching labs, and two new research centers, all housed in a gleaming six-story Integrated Sciences Complex (ISC).

The university broke ground on the ISC on June 8 during a ceremony attended by more than 350 guests.

It was a historic moment for UMass Boston: the first new academic building to be constructed in nearly 40 years, and the first major piece of a 25-year master plan that will transform the campus with new academic buildings, residence halls, parking facilities, and green space.

"I cannot overstate the impact this building will have on our university community," Chancellor J. Keith Motley said. "Our physical facilities will match our research capabilities.... We already have the talent. Our students and faculty have earned worldwide recognition for their research and findings."

See renderings of the ISC on the UMass Boston website.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, State Representative Marty Walsh, state senators Jack Hart and Tom Kennedy, Secretary of Education Paul Reveille, UMass President Robert Caret, former UMass President Jack Wilson, the UMass Board of Trustees, and representatives from the UMass Building Authority and Division of Capital Asset Management all came out to celebrate the new building.

"We're thrilled about this," Reveille said, "not only in terms of what it means for the university, and what it means for this campus, but what it means for the Commonwealth as a whole. We see our future as intimately connected with our capacity to develop in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics."

The ISC will include wet and dry research laboratories and support space, undergraduate Biology teaching labs, an infant cognition lab, and two new research centers – the Developmental Sciences Research Center and the Center for Personalized Cancer Therapy. It is expected to open for classes in September 2013.

"The sciences complex will serve as a symbol visible from the road and the sea of this university's commitment to driving progress and sparking innovation," Mayor Menino said.

The $155 million, 220,000-square-foot complex is being built at the entrance of the Columbia Point campus, adjacent to the Quinn Administration Building and Healey Library.

The ISC is part of a 25-year master plan that will include the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, which starts construction this fall, and a general academic building, which will begin construction in 2012. These will be followed by roadway reconfiguration and additional academic, residential, athletic, and parking facilities, as well as a greening of the campus with improved pedestrian and bike paths.

"We have more to do. It doesn't stop here," Chancellor Motley said. "This is just the beginning. Your blue prints are becoming concrete. Your plans are becoming reality."

Boston architecture and planning firm Goody Clancy designed the building, and Walsh Brothers is serving as construction manager. The ISC project is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the UMass Building Authority, and it is overseen by the Division of Capital Asset Management.

The work is expected to continue through the summer and is the beginning of $700 million in construction activity on the UMass Boston campus over the next decade.

To find out more about construction, visit UMass Boston's construction update page.

See photos from the groundbreaking event at UMass Boston's Flickr page.