Inside Northeastern University’s Reimagined Student Center
2025 Best of Year Winner for Small Higher Education
Several previously disconnected social areas on the second floor of Curry Student Center at Northeastern University—a Boston hub of campus life—have been reimagined to bring renewed clarity, unity, and warmth while complementing the 1964 building’s brutalist origins. Spanning 10,900 square feet in all, the project by Merge Architects encompasses a flexible event space, a lounge, a student engagement center, and the Curry Ballroom—one of the university’s main venues for conferences, performances, and larger-scale gatherings. In this impressively proportioned room, an immersive color and material palette provides a versatile backdrop. A series of sculptural wood “fan vaults” enhances acoustics, draws the eye upward, and directs sightlines to the central stage—creating an environment that feels monumental yet intimate, celebratory yet contemplative.
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PROJECT TEAM
PROJECT TEAM
ELIZABETH WHITTAKER; DIANA TOMOVA; DANIEL KWON; CASSIE GOMES; SIYI LI.
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