Harvard University opened its first on-campus convention center to help bolster the commercialization of the Ivy League institution's research, part of a wider movement in higher education to forge ties with the private sector through real estate development.
The David Rubenstein Treehouse started hosting private events last week at 20 Western Ave. in Boston's Allston neighborhood, directly across the Charles River from Harvard's main campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The convention center is part of Harvard's Enterprise Research Campus that is expected to also include two new office buildings equipped with laboratories, two apartment towers and a hotel. Tishman Speyer and Harvard Allston Land Co. are the lead developers of the campus.
The campus is part of a broader effort by Harvard to deepen connections between its academic research team and the commercial sector and investors. Other universities have pursued similar strategies, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, often by developing office buildings that come with laboratories.
Designed by the architecture firms Studio Gang and Perkins & Will, the 55,000-square-foot Rubenstein Treehouse is constructed primarily out of mass timber, a specially manufactured wood product. The interior features extensive use of Alaskan yellow cedar in walls, fixtures and structural framing.
The Rubenstein Treehouse is Harvard's first mass timber building. It comprises three floors, with the main 600-person Canopy Hall conference room on the top floor. Using mass timber instead of steel significantly reduces the building's carbon footprint, a key factor in achieving Harvard's sustainability goals.
"On the inside, design elements, such as a naturally lit central stair and framed views that create the feeling of being 'up in the canopy,' work together to evoke the wonder and excitement of climbing into a treehouse," Studio Gang said in a project description.
The Rubenstein Treehouse is named after a donation from billionaire David Rubenstein, co-founder and co-chairman of the board of Carlyle Group, a private equity firm based in Washington, D.C.
Harvard's Enterprise Research Campus isn't located near the university's hospital, but it is across the street from the Harvard Business School and Harvard's Science and Engineering Complex. The site was selected in part because of its proximity to the business and engineering schools, according to representatives from Tishman Speyer and design firms who led a tour of the campus while under construction in June.
"One of our primary goals was to create a convening space at the University that would serve not only as a hub for sharing and innovating across disciplines but also for wider collaboration among academic, industry and public and community leaders," said Meredith Weenick, executive vice president at Harvard, in a statement from the university last week.
Other components of Harvard's Enterprise Research Campus, including the Atlas Hotel and laboratory spaces, are expected to open in early 2026, according to developer Tishman Speyer.
More commercial developments for higher ed
Other colleges and universities have pushed for commercial developments that can create synergies between academic professionals, companies and investors, especially in the fields of healthcare and technology.
The Mission Rock project in San Francisco, also developed by Tishman Speyer, features lab-equipped offices, residences and retail spaces in a waterfront property near the University of California, San Francisco's Mission Bay hospital campus.
Dozens of tenants from the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors occupy lab space and offices in the Kendall Square neighborhood that surrounds the MIT campus. MIT launched its Kendall Square Initiative in 2010 to enhance the retail, dining, work and entertainment options in the neighborhood.
University Research Park, a nonprofit affiliate of the University of Wisconsin, recently opened Element Labs, an office building equipped with laboratories about 6 miles west of the main college campus in downtown Madison.
Architects at Perkins & Will said they aimed to create interiors where academic staff and professional researchers can collaborate, particularly in life sciences research, one of the University of Wisconsin's key areas of study. The cancer-research organization Invenra was the first tenant to commit to the 147,000-square-foot Element Labs complex.
"University Research Park is looking for more medium-sized or large tenants doing biological research," Adana Johns, principal in the science and technology group at Perkins & Will, told CoStar News.
For the record
Jeffrey Moore and Victoria Robinson at Tishman Speyer are leasing agents for the office component of Harvard Enterprise Research Campus. For the Rubenstein Treehouse, Studio Gang served as the design architect and architect of record, while a joint venture between Consigli Construction and Smoot Construction acted as the construction manager and general contractor. Moody Nolan is the architect of record for Harvard Enterprise Research Campus, and Henning Larsen, Utile and Scape provided planning and landscape architecture services.