The Portland-based Roux Institute of Northeastern University, offering graduate-level education in artificial intelligence, digital engineering, genomics and life sciences, as well as support for startups and seasoned executives, is off to an impressive start. The institute incorporates the successful Northeastern model of experiential, cooperative education and develops strong relationships with local tech firms.
An artist rendering envisions the Roux Institute campus at the site of the former B&M Baked Beans factory in East Deering, where the proposal calls for phased development of buildings for offices and classrooms, apartments, eateries and a hotel on the 13-acre property. Rendering by Tsoi Kobus Design and Stimson Landscape Architects
The Falmouth-based charitable and educational nonprofit Initiative for Digital Engineering and Life Sciences, having found generous donors and initiated this promising educational institution, now has acquired 14 acres of waterfront land in East Deering, the landmark home of B&M Baked Beans.
It plans the expansive “Roux campus,” requesting from the Portland City Council zoning changes to mixed-use development, as well as an institutional overlay zone reserved for educational and health institutions. But it is important to realize what the Roux campus development, owned and championed by IDEALS, is. The larger business development will indeed offer a permanent home to the Northeastern University graduate school, but it goes well beyond that. In 2018, IDEALS changed its name from “Institute” to “Initiative,” and withdrew as its purpose that it would operate a graduate institute, having successfully recruited Northeastern for this role.
The Roux campus, beyond the educational institute, will be home to publicly accessed businesses not essential to a high-tech graduate school (see Stanford, MIT, Rensselaer, etc.). The long-term plans include retail stores, restaurants, bars, a grocery, a hotel with up to 130 rooms, office and corporate R&D space, 650 residential units specifically not limited to graduate student housing or visiting faculty and, eventually, 1,900 parking spaces (equal to 9 acres).
Perhaps the campus would be more aptly named the “Roux Business and Residential Park,” also home to the prestigious Roux Institute. The educational institution seems to be used as a kind of Trojan horse, containing commercial, corporate and even industrial aspects.
IDEALS insists these public and commercial enterprises and companies “co-locating” are essential parts of its educational model, or at least material to becoming a modern tech hub.
Yet Northeastern co-op programs and internships, even for the Roux Institute, are off-campus, in more than 3,000 locations – their effective experiential model doesn’t require companies moving in as IDEALS proposes. A few top tech schools, like Georgia Tech, do operate hotel-conference centers but tend not to be as cramped for space.
IDEALS argues that having stores, restaurants, a hotel, etc., on campus will “keep students and faculty on campus to foster collaboration and reduce traffic” in the community. But these are all also open to the public, so traffic moves in both directions, and students will want to choose their Portland restaurants and shops.
A more sustainable approach than a new shopping district on campus might be providing frequent (electric) bus service and bike trail connections to Washington Avenue and downtown Portland – minutes away. In most settings, a majority of graduate students, and even more so staff and faculty, prefer to live off campus. Working to reduce the Portland housing crunch is a valid project goal, but this does not have to be limited to on-campus.
Having been involved in higher education for several decades, I do not oppose either the Roux Institute or a Roux campus, sustainably developed, with reasonable building heights and density and preserving the neighborhood and scenic Casco Bay.
However, an institutional overlay zone, intended specifically for educational and health institutions, does not fit the description of IDEALS’ plan for a massive Roux campus and shouldn’t justify it. It is Northeastern University and the Roux Institute that should apply for this overlay zone, and it should be applied specifically on the acreage used for academic education, student housing and academic research and development. Separately, a fair and honest discussion could take place on the advantages and disadvantages of zoning and permitting of other commercial aspects of the Roux campus on this acreage.
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