Part of the initiative for NEU's 177 Huntington Avenue project was to create an open, inviting environment to bring the academic and administrative groups together. Due to the vertical nature of the site, wayfinding was used to create an identity for each floor and its group(s) through the use of color and graphics.

Floors 13 and 22 each include a 6,500-square-foot fitout of academic space, including areas for professors and their post-docs and graduate students, as well as support spaces, IT closet, kitchen, conference rooms, huddle space, and seminar area.

The building has an open floor plate with great access to daylight and views across the floor. This helped to establish a design concept of being “in the clouds”. NEU’s academic work with data analytics and the digital cloud aligned with this concept, and the overarching “cloud” theme was used to determine materials and finishes that were used throughout the project.