Boston University - Pardee School of Global studies | 250 Bay State Road | Fenway

As long as they keep the historic courtyard building next year. That thing is so lovely.
 
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That building is set to make way for an expanded mall / lawn area in the longer range IMP. The School of Social Work would need to be relocated first which I suspect may end up in the buildings vacated by the existing Pardee School who are spread out among Bay State Rd buildings.
 
If this is where I think it is, the existing building is a very cute brownstone, but crap on the inside. BU is probably itching to demo it.
 
It's being placed in a spot which is currently surface parking, not a brownstone:

"Project Description
Trustees of Boston University (the “Proponent”) proposes to transform an existing 56,900-square foot (“sf”) surface parking lot into the Fredrick S. Pardee School of Global Studies (the “Pardee School”), a 70,000 sf gross floor area (”GFA”), 186-foot (“ft”) tall academic building with approximately 50,800 sf of open space (the “Project”) at 250 Bay State Road on the Boston University (“BU” or the “University”) Charles River Campus (the “Project Site”)."
Screenshot 2025-02-22 at 8.53.28 PM.png
 
Is there an actual brownstone in that area?
 
Well, this is an architectural forum, so it must be said. Our equivalent to the brownstone is the brick bow front, like on Bay State Road.
 
Scott said:
Is there an actual brownstone in that area?
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Center of this image is the building I mistook for the site. This building is going to be on the adjacent parking lot.

What is interesting is the brownstones in the background actually match the one in the foreground. And they have party walls. Theres a mysterious gap between them, where the parking lot is.
 

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Longfellow said:
Center of this image is the building I mistook for the site. This building is going to be on the adjacent parking lot.

What is interesting is the brownstones in the background actually match the one in the foreground. And they have party walls. Theres a mysterious gap between them, where the parking lot is.
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I went through the Bromley atlases for Bay State Road -- it looks like the intervening lots were laid out but never developed. The 10 defined lots around 250 Bay State were owned by Lillior Nutting, but undeveloped (existing row houses were there on both sides), until they were owned by the BU Trustees, some time between 1917 and 1928.
 
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Very interesting. I am glad that BU finally ran out of old industrial buildings to rehab e.g. Cummington St.
 
I wonder how COM people feel about this. Social science departments getting a gleaming new building, yet BU says they cannot afford a new COM building due to lack of a major donor.

COM is one of the top communication schools in the country and is still in a converted century old industrial building. And I know BU has said there are plans for a new COM building somewhere on West Campus and an unspecified future time.
 
stick n move said:
If theyre going with mass timber Id like to see them move away from the blue glass addiction.
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Just curious what would you propose for glass instead? A grayish blue tint perhaps?
I listened to the BPD presentation where it was stated that the exposed timber in the design covers 20% of the building facade and that is maximum exposure allowed by regulation.
 
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In the renders it doesn’t look aggressively blue (the glass) to me, but already light grey/blue (not that that means much; based on renders 1 Dalton would have been 3 shades lighter and far more blue). Some green glazing might look cool, but I understand how folks might balk at that since it screams “cheap” (since it is, in fact, far less expensive). Maybe pinkish glass?
 
TomOfBoston said:
I wonder how COM people feel about this. Social science departments getting a gleaming new building, yet BU says they cannot afford a new COM building due to lack of a major donor.

COM is one of the top communication schools in the country and is still in a converted century old industrial building. And I know BU has said there are plans for a new COM building somewhere on West Campus and an unspecified future time.
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They're waiting for Howard Stern to write a check!

I do agree though that the COM building has to go. Not sure where they would have room to build it in West Campus but they could put it closer to BU Central where Comm ave goes over the Pike.
 
Rover said:
They're waiting for Howard Stern to write a check!

I do agree though that the COM building has to go. Not sure where they would have room to build it in West Campus but they could put it closer to BU Central where Comm ave goes over the Pike.
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While COM is arguably the ugliest building on campus the interior is relatively functional and targeted renovations have kept it modern. The decades-long discussion of its replacement is not about funding and donors, rather campus-wide strategic planning. Given the land constraints, BU (not unlike other urban campuses in Boston) can embark on 1-2 large scale projects at a time.
COM replacement will coincide with Engineering school expansion onto the current COM lot after the consolidated IMP through 2026 is achieved. Last I heard, the location of a new COM building could be just west of the BOOTH theatre on Comm Ave where there is currently a few small buildings already owned by the university and a large parking lot behind it.
 
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