Proj.SummaryNortheastern

Northeastern University Boston, MA

Northeastern University was founded in 1898 as a day or “commuter” school. By the late 1980s, its grounds largely comprised asphalt walks, parking lots, and hard surfaces in which the old buildings clashed aesthetically with a new evolving architecture. Students and faculty did not feel safe in this automobile-dominant environment, and this inner-city atmosphere detracted from a positive academic experience for its users. In an effort to increase its residential student body, the University launched a comprehensive landscape improvement plan.

Site size:

Program: Services: Completion date: Construction cost:

55 acres University landscaping Site planning, landscape design 2008 $20 million

The aim was to transform Northeastern’s scattershot environs into a coherent, unified, attractive green campus with more student-oriented spaces and pedestrian walkways.

Pressley Associates did just that by defining recognizable entrances and gateways to the campus, and by replacing concrete plazas, parking lots and paved service drives with courtyards and tree-lined promenades.

Active and passive lawns and varied seating spaces have strengthened the sense of community and have provided a sustainable answer to the paved urban environment.

Bulfinch Mall Before

After

The asphalt paving and scrawny trees merely augmented the austerity of the gray-brick modern architecture. The backless square benches surrounding the trees forced people to sit away from each other and directed their eye away from the central energy of their campus surroundings, thereby encouraging social isolation.

Warm brick winding paths, curvilinear curbing, grass border plots and diverse plantings make this pedestrian way less of a “mall” and more of a user-friendly park setting, drawing on Boston’s historical brick sidewalk tradition. The backed ergonomic benches add to the relaxation, facing the sitters toward the campus to encourage more social interaction.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

1035 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02141

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Northeastern University

page 2

Centennial Quadrangle Before

After

A sprawling parking lot replete with automobiles and dotted with small trees made a most unwelcoming atmosphere for students, staff, parents and other visitors, creating chaos, clutter and confusion in the center of the campus. Bereft of pedestrian assets, this situation forced navigation between bumpers to get from here to there.

A circular greenspace circumvented by a pathway network gives pedestrians an in-the-round picture of the campus, its offerings and its public transportation convenience, easing wayfinding around and outside of the campus. Collegiate coziness and city connection unite in one all-encompassing composition here.

Churchill Quadrangle Before

After

Catering to the car and cheating the pedestrian, this asphaltpaved, hedge-planted mishmash of lots, egresses and islands overemphasized the “commuter� aspect of the school in a way that compromised student safety. Moreover, this patchwork arrangement looked so jumbled it resembled a hodgepodge of industrial buildings rather than a unified university campus.

Curvilinear brick paths (with just enough asphalt paving for delivery vehicles when necessary) replaced rectilinear cutthroughs, the traffic island gave way to a green oasis, and new wayfinding nodes, including lampposts and night-lit bollards, give pedestrians a safe right-of-way, establish a rich variety of visual experiences on their promenade, and integrate the buildings into one campus totality.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

1035 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02141

t 617-491-5300

f 617 491 7502

www.pressleyinc.com

Northeastern University

page 3

Krentzman Quadrangle Before

After

Plain asphalt paving cast a dreary shadow on Northeastern’s original quadrangle, giving it the appearance of an industrial wasteland. This made the quad more of a cut-through from building to building than a social gathering center. Pavement cracks, pothole patchings, litter and pigeon droppings appeared over time, worsening this “brownfield” effect.

A circular green surrounded by a red-brick walkway and nward-facing benches make the quadrangle a true campus center of outdoor recreation and relaxation as an antidote to academic rigors. The front lawn detaches the quad from the street deeply enough to make it an oasis from urban life, yet remains pleasantly accessible to the urban scene.

Library Quadrangle Before

After

The marred, underutilized pavement lacked definition and made the campus library appear too factory-like. Complementing the building’s plain-Jane facade and neutral-gray brickwork, the paving brought an ambiance of humdrum uniformity to the area. This confined the pavement to mere utilitarian purposes, not the attractive prelude to a building or grouping of buildings an open pedestrian plaza must be.

The new plaza’s geometric blend of cloverleaves, hyperbolic paraboloids and concentric circles add artful definition to the quadrangle, as well as a sense of the scientific intelligence and aesthetic sensitivity one gains studying in the library.

The plaza’s curvilinear design also expresses the motion of pedestrian circulation through the quad. Romantically rambling trees on grassplot islands add shade and serenity.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

1035 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02141

t 617-491-5300

f 617 491 7502

www.pressleyinc.com

Northeastern University

page 4

Robinson Quadrangle Before

After

A sparsely planted parking lot (left) gave this part of Northeastern the commonplace dreariness of an industrial office park rather than the fresh vibrance of a university campus. Pressley Associates resolved this dilemma with a knee-walled circular plaza (right) embraced by two grass parkplots, each anchored at the corners by trees and shrubs, bringing the orderly but serene symmetry of a French garden onto the scene. The asphalt-inlaid brick walks reconcile pedestrian with vehicle, yielding the right of way to the pedestrian most of the time but allowing campus delivery egress. The convergence of the grasslands and the walkways into the plaza create a dialogue of unity among the surrounding campus buildings.

Sculpture Park Before

After

The charge was to design a park that would ensure visitors that their first steps into the campus would evoke the contemplative atmosphere they sought for learning. An industry survey found that students make their decision to attend a college or university within the first minute of arrival on a campus. Sculpture Park fulfills this critical need to make a positive first impression. Prospective students and their parents follow a road map to the campus garage, cross a footbridge over the commuter rail, and thereby gain their first view of the campus — Sculpture Park, a well-kept, relaxed landscape with a curvilinear path extended past the student center and main library to the campus center. Sculptures are placed close to a bright, softly curving walkway and on the banks of a brook that flows into a lagoon with a waterfall. Seating opportunities and lawn areas allow students to enjoy the sculpture while they study or relax between classes.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

1035 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02141

t 617-491-5300

f 617 491 7502

www.pressleyinc.com

Northeastern University

page 5

Speare Hall Before

After

The abrupt pavement transition from diagonal brick to a straight asphalt path, with the jarring contrast of grass on one side of the path and pavement on the other, made up a choppy patchwork that lacked the visual consistency needed for a smooth, pleasant move through space.

Brick, granite and grass now make up a balanced composition that dignifies the surrounding buildings and unifies them into a campus totality. The multi-layered starpoint effect gives the plaza monumental vigor, as well as a visual focal point for (and a directional arrowpoint toward) Speare Hall.

Speare Place Before

After

A pedestrian-averse corridor (above) barred cars from this neck of the campus with merely a utilitarian aluminum gate and a grid of painted lines that signified this route as a fire lane for emergency vehicle access only. The ordinary cement sidewalks with token tree-shrub plots did not give the impression that this was a college campus at all.

Pressley Associates brought this corridor to new life as a welcoming campus entrance (right) for students, faculty and visitors.

Now a pair of classic lamps set on granite-accented brick pedestals, curved curbs bordering extended garden grassplots, and a brick-bordered pavement on a curve enrich one’s introduction to Northeastern with the romantic dignity of a driveway entrance to a classic country manor.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

1035 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02141

t 617-491-5300

f 617 491 7502

www.pressleyinc.com

Northeastern University

page 6

West Campus Before

After

The University requested that its broadest stretch of parking — which resembled a commercial autoport — give way to a new landscaped dormitory compound providing a wide variety of student gathering areas as well as service access.

Pressley’s solution was a sequence of pedestrian areas doubling as service routes, enriched with trees and grass.

Buildings G & H establish a strong presence for Northeastern along Huntington Avenue (“Avenue of the Arts”) and function as a dramatic gateway to the campus for students and visitors. Designed by William Rawn & Associates, this development received the 2005 American School and University Design Award and the 2005 Harleston Parker Medal.

World Series Way Before

After

A line-painted ladder-street with designated parking spaces created a deceptive boundary between the diversely styled rows of University buildings on either side of it, giving the immediate impression that they were not all part of the same institution. This narrow corridor also had the eeriness of a shadowy back alley one was tempted to cut through quickly to get from point A to point B, or to avoid completely.

The new pedestrian walkway, bordered by brick strips and grassy planters, unifies the buildings into the totality of the Northeastern campus. The walk’s to-and-fro curves give it the feel of a romantic ramble down a country road, encouraging pedestrians to slow down a bit and take in the beautiful plantings as they go along. This softer touch to a public promenade makes the neighborhood feel safer as well.

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

1035 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02141

t 617-491-5300

f 617 491 7502

www.pressleyinc.com