NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Boston University has proposed building a new research center that will house interdisciplinary life sciences research projects involving systems and synthetic biology and neuroscience.
Under the plan, the Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering will occupy a seven-story, 149,500 square-foot building.
The building's main seven floors will provide lab and collaboration areas, as well as academic and administrative spaces, and they will be topped off with a mechanical penthouse that will house the machinery needed to support research programs.
The proposal for the center, which would be built on a space BU owns that is currently a parking lot, is a late addition that the university has added to its 2013 Institutional Master Plan, a 10-year program for development and construction around the campus.
Under the master plan, which the city approved in April, BU also plans to build another 165,000 square-foot science and engineering building.
The Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering will be located near existing biology research labs at BU's Charles River campus.
BU completed and opened a new 188,500 square-foot Life Science and Engineering building in 2005, and it said in its proposal that its "programs in life sciences and engineering have continued to thrive, which has led to the need for additional research and laboratory space."
BU officials didn't say when they expect the city to review or weigh the proposal.