Harvard Business School Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center
Boston 
Award of Merit

Owner: Harvard Business School
Lead Designer: Goody Clancy
General Contractor: Lee Kennedy Co.
Civil Engineer: Nitsch Engineering Inc.
Structural Engineer: LeMessurier Consultants
MEP Engineer: R.G. Vanderweil Engineers
Consultants: The Design Initiative Inc. (Interiors); Atelier Ten (Sustainability and Lighting Design)
Landscape Architect: Reed Hilderbrand
Owner’s Representative: CSL Consulting LLC

The first building on the Harvard Business School campus to be named for a woman honors the late matriarch of the Chinese-American Chao family. The Chaos are the first family to have four daughters attend HBS. One of them is U.S. Dept. of Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.

The 90,000-sq-ft center, located at the end of Harvard Way and the Harvard Business School’s “long-standing social Main Street,” is the newest edition to the school’s original McKim, Mead & White-designed legacy campus. The facility creates a hub for HBS’s executive education program by connecting two different parts of the campus.

Using a design assist approach for the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection systems helped the team deliver the 14-month project on time. The team also said using design assist helped lock in “schedule commitments and added to the proactive approach with additional team member participation.”

The building, registered for LEED Gold certification, includes an open theater-style forum, state-of-the-art classrooms, meeting rooms, offices, dining facilities and an elevated terrace.

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