The building is intended to inspire the larger UMass Boston community by integrating all university departments involved in laboratory research in a dynamic, new environment centered around a dramatic, five-story atrium known as the Hub.

• The state-of-the-art facility includes research lab space for the Biology, Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences (EEOS), Chemistry, Physics, and Psychology Departments. Laboratories were designed for maximum flexibility and visual openness.
• The program comprises wet and dry labs, computational space, specialized support facilities such as vivarium, NMR, and spaces for handling sea-floor cores.
• At the second floor—connected by a glazed bridge to the adjacent Quinn Administration Building—are two teaching labs for undergraduate biology.
• The Hub exhibits “science on display” and connects all floors while providing major public areas for social events and presentations. Its crystalline exterior walls highlight the interaction within the space while opening views to both Savin Cove and the campus.
• An underground tunnel links to the Service & Supply Building to facilitate deliveries and reduce vehicular traffic to the building.

Included within the project is an extensive, new green space opening toward the cove and serving as the “front yard” of the campus, planted with native species and sustainably designed. On the campus side of the ISC is a more intimate, paved plaza.