Harvard Reopens 60 Oxford St. as New Quantum Building

Science at Harvard is taking a quantum leap with the opening of the Goel Quantum Science and Engineering Building.

After two years of construction at 60 Oxford St. — formerly a Harvard data center — the Goel building, opened in August, will serve as the new hub for the Harvard Quantum Initiative, Harvard’s consortium of quantum science and engineering researchers. The building will also house researchers at the Rowland Institute, which supports early career science researchers in independent research, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The HQI co-directors — applied physics professor Evelyn Hu and physics professors John M. Doyle and Mikhail Lukin — spearheaded the 70,000 square-foot renovation. They highlighted the availability of offices, labs, technical facilities, and interaction spaces designed to “foster community” and “enhance the creation of new ideas.”

“Seminars, research groups, and even serendipitous one-on-one discussions were all in mind during the schematic design phase of the building,” the three professors wrote in an emailed statement.

The building was constructed with the students and professors in mind, who, as the HQI directors wrote, “developed their ideal scenarios for lab spaces and group offices.” Some faculty were involved in the minutest of details — all the way down to the air conditioning system.

The directors wrote that the architecture of the building has contributed to a general atmosphere of openness, collaboration and “dreaming and planning of future possibilities.”

Physics professor Susanne Yelin, among the first people in the building, said the transition was smooth.

“I was a little afraid that it would take a very long time until there is really kind of an atmosphere of life in the building — that happened surprisingly fast,” she said. “People really love to come here for seminars, etcetera, because it seems to be much more kind of open space for people to interact.”

While the building is not yet at capacity, a variety of organizations have moved in, and will have access to spaces such as a teaching lab and low-vibration laboratories.

“The building is not full yet,” the directors wrote. “But so far the people in the building like it!”

The HQI directors wrote that they hope the Goel Building will be the “intellectual core of quantum coherence and control across engineering and the sciences” as a “symbolic presence, similar to a department.”

—Staff writer Caitlyn C. Kukulowicz can be reached at caitlyn.kukulowicz@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Andrew Yu can be reached at andrew.yu@thecrimson.com.