Boston, MA – The University of Massachusetts Boston today broke ground on the first new academic building since the campus was completed in 1974. The building, a $155 million, 220,000-square-foot Integrated Sciences Complex, is being built at the entrance of the Columbia Point campus and will house state-of-the-art research, teaching, and training
laboratories.
The new six-story building 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 Integrated Sciences Complex represents a significant step forward in our continued commitment to provide access to high-quality education for our students,” said Chancellor J. Keith Motley. “This is the start of a planned renewal of our campus that will open the doors to opportunity even wider at UMass Boston.”
Speakers included: UMass Boston Chancellor J. Keith Motley, UMass President Jack Wilson, UMass Board of Trustees Chairman James Karam, Phil Johnston from the UMass Building Authority, Carole Cornelison from the Division of Capital Asset Management, State Senator Jack Hart, State Representative Marty Walsh, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, UMass Boston Provost Winston Langley, Secretary of Education Paul Reville
The Integrated Sciences Complex 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.
“I commend UMass Boston for its service to the city and the commonwealth,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino, an alumnus of the university. “This new research facility – along with the other planned improvements – will create jobs, spur research and innovation, and strengthen the university as an economic engine.”
Walsh Brothers, the construction manager for the Integrated Sciences Complex, this week began driving 320 piles into the site to support the building foundation. 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. The Integrated Sciences Complex project is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the UMass Building Authority, and is overseen by
the Division of Capital Asset Management (DCAM).
“This is a great day for DCAM and UMass Boston as we celebrate another milestone in the Patrick-Murray Administration’s commitment to world-class public higher education facilities,” said DCAM Commissioner Carole Cornelison. “The construction of the Integrated Science Complex means that students, faculty and staff of UMass Boston will
have the kind of modern academic and program support space needed to compete for the jobs of tomorrow.”
