About

The Harvard Allston Land Company (HALC) manages the development of Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus (ERC) in Allston. The ERC will be located on Western Avenue, adjacent to Harvard’s Science and Engineering Complex (SEC), across the street from Harvard Business School (HBS), and situated in the diverse and vibrant Allston community. Goals for the ERC include creating space for a range of research-oriented companies, social ventures, businesses, and startups, alongside a mix of additional uses such as housing, hotel, and retail space that will contribute to, and complement, the activities and spirit of community across the neighborhood.

This commercial and residential hub will provide acres of new open space, cultural and community gathering spaces, and affordable housing opportunities which exceed state and local requirements, and ensure that the ERC becomes an inclusive destination for all to live, work, and play. In addition to HBS and SEC, the ERC will share Western Avenue with the Harvard Allston Ed Portal— a place where Allston-Brighton residents, students of all ages, and working professionals participate in hundreds of programs in a space created for cross-community learning and engagement—and the active and popular Zone 3 space for creative programs, events, and retail.

The ERC will complement and contribute to a diverse and thriving neighborhood that brings together teaching and learning, and the arts and sciences in ways that drive economic growth and innovation. It will be a center for collaboration and entrepreneurship, bringing together partners from across greater Boston and beyond. Proximity to Harvard’s campus, neighboring higher education research institutions, and Boston’s world leading hospitals will strengthen the ERC’s potential to transform the region in exciting and unexpected ways.

The ERC also presents an opportunity to convert an inaccessible and vacant area into a vibrant, healthy, connected, and active district. Planning will address sustainability and resiliency on multiple scales, and all development in the ERC will be analyzed for opportunities to eliminate or reduce reliance on fossil fuel energy systems to meet Harvard’s goal of being fossil-fuel free by 2050. 

As planning advances in the ERC, Harvard and its partners will work collaboratively to recruit idea-intensive businesses that have a natural synergy with the scholarship occurring at Harvard and beyond. This work will create a gravitational pull attracting for-profit and non-profit companies and organizations, and will further strengthen and expand partnerships across Greater Boston’s thriving ecosystem of culture and innovation that includes Boston University, MIT, Harvard and other associated teaching hospitals, and innovative companies, groups, initiatives and investors throughout Greater Boston and beyond.

 

Board Members

nitin_nohria

Nitin Nohria

Chair,
Professor of Business Administration, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor,
Harvard Business School

Team