Mayor Martin Walsh, Northeastern University (NU) President Joseph Aoun and state Rep. Jeffrey Sánchez were some of the officials who broke ground on NU’s new $225 million Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC) on Feb. 21.
Located at 795 Columbus Ave., the ISEC will provide state-of-the-art research infrastructure for NU. It will be approximately 220,000 square feet and six stories tall. This is Northeastern’s first significant academic building in 10 years.
Scheduled to open in 2016, ISEC will include wet and dry lab facilities, educational laboratories, classroom space, and offices for faculty and graduate students.
The site includes public green space. A new curved landscaped pedestrian bridge known as “The Arc” will connect Roxbury and Fenway across the Southwest Corridor Park.
The ISEC will be the first private research development in Roxbury and is expected to create more than 600 jobs during the construction phase and an additional 700 jobs after the complex opens.
“The future of our university is intimately linked to the well-being of the Roxbury community and Boston as a whole,” Aoun said during his remarks. “You need us. But more importantly, we need you.”