Enterprise Research Campus Plan

Once home to a vast industrial yard, the new district sits at a key intersection in the city, located between Harvard’s business school and Science and Engineering Complex, the Charles River, and a major public transit hub planned just to the south. Looking to strengthen relationships between Allston’s residents, academics, and industry leaders, the plan for the ERC proposes a continuous public greenway, with bike and pedestrian paths, that weaves the district together and provides a range of outdoor areas from intimate groves to a large civic plaza for programming throughout the year.

Drawing on Boston’s rich history of interconnected parks, like the Emerald Necklace, the greenway sets up seamless links between the district’s new buildings, including laboratories, a conference center, housing, offices, and a hotel, and improves the flow of people across the site. Building edges are activated with retail and neighborhood amenities, amplifying opportunities for people to meet and exchange ideas. At the urban scale, the greenway will serve as a community connector, extending into the surrounding neighborhood where it joins Rena Park and the Boston Public Library’s Allston branch to the west and the Charles River to its east.

Supporting the project’s commitment to sustainability, the ERC’s network of green spaces—shaded by a robust tree canopy—offers a refreshing microclimate that helps reduce cooling loads, especially during Boston’s hot summers, while in winter, the stepped massing of the taller buildings allows sunlight to penetrate the ground plane, further minimizing energy demand. Biodiverse vegetation aims to revitalize the former industrial land, providing habitat for migratory birds and enhancing the city’s air quality. Bio-swales and -retention tanks integrated into streetscapes and public open space capture rainwater for irrigation. Collectively, these strategies not only strengthen the ERC’s resiliency, but propose a vibrant framework to bring people, ideas, and nature together—a way forward for future development across the city and Greater Boston.