Richard Southerland, who began working for the University City Science Center in 1980, remembers a time when the 3600 and 3700 blocks of Market Street lacked the towering edifices that now pepper it.
On Thursday, the nonprofit’s director of construction led this reporter on a hard-hat tour of the nonprofit’s upcoming home at the 3675 Market building, the 14-story innovation hub that will house “entrepreneur’s clubhouse” Quorum, the Cambridge Innovation Center, Venture Café, lab spaces by way of BioLabs and the Science Center itself.
The space’s grand opening is happening Nov. 9, 2018.
“Everyone who’s seen it is beyond thrilled of how the project is coming out,” said exec Tracy Brala, a Comcast alum who recently joined the Science Center as its VP of ecosystem development.
Here’s Brala giving a quick tour of the space, still in development.
We just got a hard hat tour of the upcoming @Quorum_Sc space at 3675 Market.
Here's @UCScienceCenter exec Tracy Brala giving us the quick tour:
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— Technical.ly (@Technical_ly) August 2, 2018
“In my mind, this is the entrepreneur’s clubhouse,” Brala said of the Quorum space, which spans the building’s first two floors. It will feature large conference rooms and smaller breakout spaces. All told, it will span triple the size of its original site at 3711 Market — going from 5,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet.
Science Center Director of Construction Richard Southerland holds up a rendering of the upcoming Quorum space. (Photo by Roberto Torres)
Last week the Science Center named a new CEO in former Safeguard Scientifics chief Steve Zarrilli, who will be tasked with leading the organization through a “major model shift” announced at the end of last year that would see it steer away from physical space management to focus more on entrepreneurship-focused programs.
The Venture Cafe space will host weekly networking events. It features a third-floor terrace. (Photo by Roberto Torres)
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