Shawmut Design and Construction is threading 190 tons of reclaimed Chicago Common Brick through the laminated mass timber structural frame now rising at Harvard University’s new American Repertory Theatre home in Allston. That is according to a construction update published yesterday by New England Real Estate Journal, which detailed the regenerative design strategy being executed by Shawmut as construction manager on the David E. and Stacey L. Goel Center for Creativity & Performance at 175 N. Harvard Street.
The light-coloured common brick was salvaged from two residential buildings in Chicago’s West Pullman neighbourhood that had been slated for demolition, and is being laid into the interior walls of the west and east stages, the public lobby, circulation walkways and gathering areas. A signature red brick from Harvard Square’s historic “Pit,” presented to the theatre by the Harvard Square Business Association as its 2026 Cornerstone Award, is being installed among the Chicago salvage to anchor the facility’s link to its Cambridge roots.
The reclaimed masonry sits against a laminated mass timber superstructure that Shawmut topped off in October 2025, with more than 2,000 individual timber components now installed — columns, beams, floors, walls, stairways and elevator shafts — including 15 mega trusses at 70 feet long and 10 feet high, each weighing almost 30,000 pounds and delivered as single pieces from Canada. The structure also carries large columns weighing more than 10,000 pounds each, and the topping-off ceremony marked the 50 per cent construction milestone at 175 N. Harvard Street.
Designed by London practice Haworth Tompkins with ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge as architect of record and Charcoalblue as theatre and acoustic consultant, the four-storey, 85,000-square-foot building carries the Canadian timber package alongside cedar cladding, targeting Living Building Challenge Core accreditation from the International Living Future Institute. Altieri is delivering MEPF, IT and security on the project, with construction managed through to completion by Shawmut and audiences expected from early 2027.
Kevin Sullivan, executive vice president of Shawmut’s New England region, said the Goel Center represents “a new benchmark for sustainable, low-carbon construction,” crediting the combination of laminated mass timber, reclaimed brick and cedar cladding for the project’s reduced lifetime carbon budget. The building is also tied into Harvard’s new lower-carbon District Energy Facility for chilled water, hot water and electrical supply, with rooftop solar, natural ventilation and a green roof rounding out the operational carbon strategy.
The theatre will contain two flexible performance venues: a 700-seat West Stage for large-scale productions and a 300-seat East Stage configured as an intimate black box, alongside light-filled rehearsal studios, teaching spaces, a spacious public lobby, a modest café, dressing rooms, technical shops, administrative offices and an outdoor performance yard for ticketed and free programming. A roughly 200-foot mural by Boston artist Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs is being developed for the north-facing wall through community workshops, set to rank among the largest pieces of public art on Harvard’s campus.
Susan Malaab, senior project manager with Harvard Capital Projects, said planning for the performance centre began in 2018, with workshops that set flexibility, public gathering, accessibility, and sustainability as the four design anchors for the scheme. Terrie and Bradley Bloom, Artistic Director Diane Paulus told Harvard Gazette the new home “will provide many exciting new opportunities,” closing the company’s 45-year run at the Loeb Drama Center in Harvard Square.
The move was jump-started by a $100 million foundational gift from Harvard alumnus David E. Goel and Stacey L. Goel in 2019, and Harvard has since folded the building into a $750 million Allston campus buildout that the university credits for a 14 per cent floor-area expansion alongside a 40 per cent cut in campus carbon emissions over baseline. The theatre fronts Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus beside the David Rubenstein Treehouse, a 55,000-square-foot mass timber convening centre designed by Studio Gang, as Wood Central reported last November in its feature on Harvard’s timber strategy for net-zero.
