Studio Gang and Henning Larsen Complete Breakthrough Properties’ One Milestone
Studio Gang, the international architecture and urban design firm led by Jeanne Gang, and Henning Larsen, the international studio working across architecture and urbanism, announced today the completion of Breakthrough Properties’ One Milestone, a new hub for advancing science and research. Featuring distinct designs from each firm, One Milestone completes the first phase of Tishman Speyer and the Harvard Allston Land Company’s Enterprise Research Campus (ERC), a new mixed-use development in Allston. Developed by Breakthrough Properties, a joint venture of Tishman Speyer and Bellco Capital, One Milestone is already attracting world-leading occupiers such as Roche’s Genentech. The newly completed complex was recently awarded the 2026 Fitwel Best in Building Health Award after achieving Fitwel 2-star certification and is pursuing LEED Gold certification.
One Milestone creates a welcoming, flexible environment that encourages interaction, experimentation, and contemplation. Located on the southwest end of the ERC, the two-building complex is composed of One Milestone West, designed by Studio Gang, and One Milestone East, designed by Henning Larsen. Designed by Henning Larsen, a transparent, three-story atrium links the two buildings and enables interaction at every scale, providing amenities and collaboration spaces for occupants across both sides of the complex. Arrowstreet served as Architect of Record and Sustainability Consultant for One Milestone, translating the design teams’ vision into a high-performance life science environment.
As curated by the Breakthrough Art Program, the building features original works by artists whose practices explore the broad field of life sciences and foster collaboration across disciplines, integrating insights from science, technology, and the humanities to inspire interdisciplinary thinking and discovery. These include artworks by Ai Weiwei, Mungo Thomson, Eamon Ore-Giron, Lyès-Olivier Sidhoum, Ernesto Neto, Alexandre da Cunha, Goshka Macuga, Noémie Goudal, Jan-Ole Schiemann, and Analia Saban.
One Milestone marks Studio Gang and Henning Larsen’s latest collaboration on the ERC, which began in 2019 with their co-design of a strategic framework plan for creating a vibrant and inclusive public realm that brings the campus and surrounding community together. The building is part of the first phase of the ERC development effort led by the Harvard Allston Land Company and Tishman Speyer. The first phase of the ERC features four new buildings, all designed by internationally renowned architecture practices, connected by Allstonway, a SCAPE-designed network of public green spaces anchoring the district. In addition to One Milestone, ERC buildings include: The Atlas, a boutique hotel designed by Marlon Blackwell Architects that opened earlier this year; the David Rubenstein Treehouse, a new conference facility designed by Studio Gang that opened in October 2025; and Verra, a 343 unit apartment building designed by MVRDV that began welcoming residents last year.
“With One Milestone, we set out to create a hub for innovation that sparks connection and discovery. Studio Gang, Henning Larsen, and Arrowstreet were the ideal firms to accomplish this goal,” said Eric Stadelmann, Vice President, Design and Construction at Breakthrough Properties. “With its sustainable features, flexible labs, and collaborative amenities, One Milestone will advance the Allston life science ecosystem.”
About One Milestone West
The design of the 245,000 sf One Milestone West features a transparent façade and carved form that helps to foster connections between the indoors and the outdoors. Comprised of long bands of solid zones interspersed with glazing—whose horizontality sets up a dynamic contrast with the vertically articulated design of One Milestone East—the strata-like façade brings natural light inside the building. As light moves along it, the façade’s panels shift subtly in color, establishing a dynamic presence on the campus. At the ground level, the building subtly steps back to create sheltered areas for dining and socializing, activating the building’s edges and Allstonway. The upper floors are dedicated to flexible laboratories and workspaces that support a range of activities, from quiet areas for focused research to common areas for meeting and discussion. Carving is kept to a minimum on the south side to maintain optimal depth for lab use, while on the north, the stepped form creates outdoor terraces that offer access to fresh air and expansive views.
“It has been a fascinating and rewarding process to create the design vision for the Enterprise Research Campus with Henning Larsen, and to bring the district to life through the architecture of One Milestone and the David Rubenstein Treehouse at Harvard University,” said Weston Walker, Design Principal and Partner at Studio Gang. “The design of One Milestone West is carefully sculpted in response to the program and its context. Users will enjoy flexible workspaces, generous terraces, and panoramic views. Neighbors will enjoy the building’s dynamic form, calibrated to enhance sunlight along Allstonway and to create a welcoming gesture along Trotting Avenue.”
The building’s design demonstrates that laboratories can not only be welcoming and engaging workspaces but also integral to the development of a more sustainable civic realm. One Milestone West’s façade is carefully tuned to balance thermal performance year-round, while large areas are opaque to make the building more detectable to birds and reduce potential collisions. Its carved form allows sunlight to reach the public green spaces below, where bio-swales and retention tanks are integrated throughout the revitalized landscape. The use of low carbon concrete, insulation, and steel reduce One Milestone West’s embodied carbon, and nearly half the materials used are Red List Free-compliant.
About One Milestone East
Anchoring the southeastern point of Allstonway, the Henning Larsen-designed One Milestone East represents a new vision for lab design. The nine-story, 265,000 sf life science building is a series of flexible labs and offices, and a range of shared indoor and outdoor tenant amenities in a characteristic, cascading design informed by access to daylight and nature. An efficient L-shaped floor plan separates the lab section from flexible office spaces. One Milestone East houses both fully customizable floorplates ranging from 34,000-36,000 sf in size as well as StudioLabs, a serviced and equipped laboratory and office concept by Breakthrough Properties, designed to offer private, turnkey suites to growing life science companies. The building has already attracted a high-profile anchor tenant, with Roche’s Genentech committing to 100,000 sf to establish a new innovation center focused on Cardiovascular, Renal, and Metabolism discovery as well as AI and data science initiatives, a powerful demonstration of One Milestone’s ability to attract world-leading science to the ERC.
“Connectivity is our design driver. The cascading terraces bring the character of Allstonway upward through the building, giving researchers at every floor a direct relationship to the outdoors and the broader life of the campus. Floor-to-ceiling glazing and landscaped outdoor spaces ensure that the boundary between the controlled laboratory environment and the urban landscape around it stays deliberately, productively blurred. Working in parallel with our colleagues at Studio Gang on One Milestone West, we were able to ensure the two buildings speak to each other—each distinct in character, but united in their commitment to the street and the people who animate it,” said Daniel Baumann, Design Director, Americas, Henning Larsen.
At ground level, the building engages directly with Allstonway, its cascading form creating sheltered spaces that invite researchers and visitors to linger, meet, and socialize at the building’s edges. The façade’s differentiated massing and scalloped cladding play with light and shadow throughout the day, paying homage to the historic architecture of the nearby Harvard Business School in a contemporary reinterpretation of its fine grain and saturated earthen tones. Landscaped outdoor spaces invite researchers to step outside the controlled laboratory environment for meetings, events, or informal collaboration, while lush plantings reinforce the building’s connection to the surrounding landscape. Full-height glazing and high-performance glass maximize daylight penetration while minimizing heat transmittance, contributing to a 40% reduction in energy consumption from baseline. The building’s massing serves as a visual and acoustic barrier from the District Energy Facility for the residential buildings north of Allstonway. One Milestone East demonstrates that high-performance life science facilities can be both productive environments for world-leading research and active contributors to the life of the city around them.
“One Milestone required an unusually integrated approach, balancing advanced laboratory requirements, complex technical coordination, and measurable performance outcomes across two distinct buildings,” said Amy Korté, President of Arrowstreet. “By establishing performance priorities early and carrying them through design and construction, the project was able to advance carbon reduction, resilience, wellness, and healthy materials strategies in a deeply integrated way,” said Kate Bubriski, Director of Building Performance at Arrowstreet. “The result is a life science environment that supports rigorous research while strengthening the everyday human connection to daylight, landscape, and place.”
