[architecture] Novartis
Mar. 3rd, 2008 11:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI got to see a bit of the Novartis headquarters on Mass Ave. (Cambridge) last week. Interesting space, what I saw of it.
The building used to be the headquarters of Necco, and the architects kept the exteriors looking fairly similar, though there's now a very modern little triangular extra building, all glass and such, in the angle of the old building.
The lobby was what impressed me most. It's open to all six stories, a curvilinear shape cut through all the floors allowing light and a sense of greater space. There are four elevators, their workings all visible. The floor has an inlay of the DNA double helix. Really cool space.
And there's a winter garden, composed entirely of medicinal plants (plus a brochure that gives more detail about their uses than just the names, plus a little map of where in the atrium they grow). The list: dwarf citrus (Citrus meyeri, Rutaceae), black ginger (Zingiber sp., Zingiberaceae), Brazilian beauty leaf (calophyllum brasiliense, Guttiferae), camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora, Lauraceae), Japanese banana tree (Musa basjoo, Musaceae), sweetheart banana tree (Musa cordaba), blood leaf banana tree (Musa zebrina rojo), ice cream banana tree (Musa tuu ghia), banana tree (Musa bordelon), provision tree water chestnut (Pachira aquatica Bombaceae), coffee tree (Coffea arabica Rubiaceae), nutmeg (Myristica fragrans, Myristicaceae), sweet potato vine (Ipomea sp., Solanaceae), and emerald gem (Homalomena sp., Araceae). There are banana, nutmeg, and coffee trees in Cambridge!
The building used to be the headquarters of Necco, and the architects kept the exteriors looking fairly similar, though there's now a very modern little triangular extra building, all glass and such, in the angle of the old building.
The lobby was what impressed me most. It's open to all six stories, a curvilinear shape cut through all the floors allowing light and a sense of greater space. There are four elevators, their workings all visible. The floor has an inlay of the DNA double helix. Really cool space.
And there's a winter garden, composed entirely of medicinal plants (plus a brochure that gives more detail about their uses than just the names, plus a little map of where in the atrium they grow). The list: dwarf citrus (Citrus meyeri, Rutaceae), black ginger (Zingiber sp., Zingiberaceae), Brazilian beauty leaf (calophyllum brasiliense, Guttiferae), camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora, Lauraceae), Japanese banana tree (Musa basjoo, Musaceae), sweetheart banana tree (Musa cordaba), blood leaf banana tree (Musa zebrina rojo), ice cream banana tree (Musa tuu ghia), banana tree (Musa bordelon), provision tree water chestnut (Pachira aquatica Bombaceae), coffee tree (Coffea arabica Rubiaceae), nutmeg (Myristica fragrans, Myristicaceae), sweet potato vine (Ipomea sp., Solanaceae), and emerald gem (Homalomena sp., Araceae). There are banana, nutmeg, and coffee trees in Cambridge!