The Center for Computing & Data Sciences wins Harleston Parker People’s Choice Award

March 15, 2024

The Center for Computing & Data Sciences at Boston University has received the Harleston Parker People’s Choice Award. A finalist for the Harleston Parker Medal — the highest honour awarded by the Boston Society for Architecture — the Center was chosen as the Harleston Parker People’s Choice honoree from a list of four finalists. 

The Medal, first awarded in 1923, recognizes “the most beautiful piece of architecture” built in Boston in the last decade. This year’s jury, consisting of respected names in the industry like Kara Elliott-Ortega, Chief of Arts and Culture at the City of Boston and Susi Sanchez, Founder of UX Architecture Studio, called the Center “a truly monumental building” and “a landmark project,” and applauded it for “push[ing] the envelope in expression, sustainability, and innovation.” 

Completed in Fall 2022, the Center has been praised as an exemplar for the university and for Boston. It transforms the city’s skyline, meets ambitious sustainability goals, and prioritizes human-centered design and interconnectivity. 

Since its opening, the Center, a multi-award-winning project, has advanced the university’s goal of educating and empowering the next generation of computer and data scientists. It brings together more than 3000 students and faculty that had previously been scattered around the university, giving them an open, flexible, interdisciplinary hub to learn, collaborate, and build community. 

In its first year, it became the first building at the university to achieve LEED Platinum, tripled its core faculty, doubled its course offerings, grew its PhD in Computing & Data Sciences program (with women accounting for 50% of the program’s latest cohort), and hosted community events (like the Civic Tech Hackathon) that use data science to tackle issues such as social justice and climate change. 

Learn more about the Center. 

Header photo by Paige McWhorter