At 19 stories, this award-winning, iconic building—housing the departments of Mathematics and Statistics and Computer Science and the Hariri Institute—is the largest fossil-fuel-free building in Boston, relying on deep wells to harness the thermal capacity of the earth for heating and cooling and eliminate the need to connect the building to a gas line.

Tour the Center for Computing & Data Sciences Virtually

Join BU leadership and the project development team as they take you on an interactive tour of the building's key sustainability elements.

CLICK HERE FOR INTERACTIVE TOUR.

Energy Efficiency

• The building's design minimizes energy consumption using energy-efficient strategies such as external sun shading devices, triple glazing on the windows, enhanced heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and dedicated outside air heat recovery systems.
• With 31 bore holes, each 1,500 feet deep, the heating and cooling system is expected to provide over 300 tons of heating/cooling capacity. Heat pumps use the temperature differential the earth provides to draw heat from the ground in the winter and to expel heat in the summer.

Profile

665 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215

Total Building Area: 345,000 sq ft

Architects: KPMB Architects

MEP Engineers: BR+A

LEED: The Green Engineer

Climate Engineers: Transsolar

Geothermal Engineers: Haley & Aldrich

Geotechnical Engineers: Haley & Aldrich

Structural: LeMessurier

Civil: Nitsch Engineering

Landscape: Richard Burck Associates

General Contractor: Suffolk Construction

Geothermal Contractor: Skillings & Sons

Project Manager: Compass

Building Envelope: Entuitive

Lighting: DotDash

Building Performance Modeling & Analysis: RWDI

Building Commissioning:WSP

Specifications: Brian Ballentyne Specifications

Acoustics & Audio Visual: Acentech

Façade Maintenance: Lerch Bates

Transportation Engineering: AECOM

Cost Estimating: Turner & Townsend

BU Wind: ENGIE

BU Solar: Solect Energy

Visit Campus Planning & Operations to learn more.