Academic Building @ Suffolk U | 20 Somerset Street | Beacon Hill

Re: suffolk

Ron Newman said:
DudeUrSistersHot said:
Unlike John Hancock, Gillette, Bank of America, etc, none of our colleges are going anywhere. They will always stay here.
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Almost true, but I'll nitpick a bit anyway. Emerson College almost moved to Lawrence. Boston State College was merged out of existence. The Art Institute of Boston merged into Lesley and will soon move from Boston to Cambridge. Newton College of the Sacred Heart merged into Boston College. Bradford College in Haverhill closed up shop a few years ago.
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Ok, given. But you may notice that none of these places moved to North Carolina or Florida or California. They moved a few towns over, closed entirely, or merged with other local schools.
 
Not to mention Boston still seems ripe for the foundation of new institutions. Olin in Needham and the Hult International Business School in Cambridge (the latter an MIT spinoff) come to mind.
 
Here's the latest on the Suffolk dorms.

Condo residents won't oppose Suffolk dorm
School agrees to limit its future expansion of housing in the area

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | July 3, 2007

A major obstacle to Suffolk University's plan to put a 274-bed dormitory in the Ladder District near Downtown Crossing fell yesterday when its future neighbors at Millennium Place dropped their opposition.

To gain support from the owners of the luxury residential towers on the edge of Chinatown, Suffolk University signed a detailed agreement that will limit its future expansion of student housing.

Negotiations with Millennium Place "resulted in making the project better for both Suffolk University and the surrounding community," John A. Nucci, vice president for government and community affairs at Suffolk University, said yesterday.

Suffolk University, which was rebuffed by City Hall in its attempt to build a 550-bed dormitory on Beacon Hill, instead purchased a condominium project that was under way at 10 West St., a block up Washington Street from Avery Street, where Millennium Place is located.

The sale closed last week. The price was $32 million.

Millennium has three residential towers, and the agreement was reached with associations for each building. The Ritz-Carlton Boston Common hotel also is located at Millennium Place.

The agreement includes a promise by the university not to develop more student housing in the areas -- with the exception of the Modern Theatre site, which is adjacent to 10 West St.

That decaying property, owned by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, is expected to be redeveloped. Suffolk could compete for the right to put a dorm there, which under the agreement with Millennium would have a maximum of 200 beds.

The BRA requested proposals for the Modern site on Friday; they are due Aug. 30.

In addition, the agreement requires:

A 24-hour Suffolk University police presence and security cameras at the new dorm, plus privately paid Boston police details.

Rental of the ground floor as retail space.

A university contribution to a Boston Common security fund.

Efforts to limit disruptions during student arrival and departure periods.

About half of the beds will be in units with kitchens, the other half in suites of two or three bedrooms with common living areas, whose residents will take their meals at a university dining hall at 150 Tremont St.

The provisions of the agreement with Millennium Place are expected to be incorporated in a cooperation agreement with a neighborhood advisory subcommittee and the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

Nucci said the first-floor space of 10 West St. probably will be occupied by a high-quality restaurant. Another small retail space could house a dry cleaner or grocery store.

Suffolk University hopes to open the building in September, but it will be completed in January at the latest, Nucci said. Suffolk Construction Co. has been hired to build the dorm in an existing eight-story, 90,000-square-foot former office building.

Suffolk University has a purchase-and-sale agreement with the state to buy the former Metropolitan District Commission headquarters building on Beacon Hill, where it had proposed a larger dorm. Mayor Thomas M. Menino rejected that idea, after initially supporting it, because of opposition from Beacon Hill residents who were fearful of rowdy student behavior.

Nucci said he did not know what the university's plan is for that building.
 
I can't believe Suffolk caved to the demands, of all people, the condo owners in the Ritz Towers. This isn't exactly a single family home residential neighborhood, they live up...why in the would would they have even complained about students on the street...logic would dictate that the more young, educated, talented people in the neighborhood, the safer the streets would be for everyone. Even if the kids stumble home at 2 am the residents are 20 floors up...the benefits of having more people on the streets during the day and evening hours more than outweigh the partying that goes on during the weekends.
 
Those requirements don't seem to be too egregious.

At least they are not asking for shuttle service and free tuition.

The ground floor retail sounds like a win/win.
 
^^^^^^^^^
Promising not to build any more student housing in the area is a huge requirement! Frankly, it's the city's job to stipulate concessions to build, not the neighbors a block or more away. It's difficult enough to get anything built in this city without having to placate every resident in every neighboring building. Who knows, maybe now the residents at Tremont on the Common have their shopping list of demands to present to Suffolk seeing that their Ritz neighbors have had their say.
 
Gah, most of the condos in Millennium Place are just pieds-a-terre for athletes and out of town businessmen! They're probably only around two nights a month.
 
The Globe said:
Suffolk dorm plan advances as neighbors drop opposition

July 8, 2007

Suffolk University officials are optimistic about their proposal to convert the building at 10 West St. in Downtown Crossing into a student residence hall, now that residents at the nearby Millennium Place condominiums have dropped their opposition to the project.

The Boston Redevelopment Authority held its second and final public meeting on the issue in late June and will be collecting public comments until tomorrow.

According to Jessica Shumaker of the BRA, when that period is over, the agency will review the comments and their internal analysis, then make a decision, probably at one of the next BRA board meetings, which take place every three weeks.

"Suffolk has done a good job of getting the community on board, and we feel we are ready to make a decision fairly soon," said Shumaker.

The BRA has been largely supportive of the proposal, saying it is a good alternative to Suffolk's 2006 plans to construct a dorm on Beacon Hill, which eventually lost support from city officials in light of neighborhood complaints.

For the current plan, Millennium Place residents dropped their opposition after reaching an agreement with Suffolk University last Monday.

The school agreed to limit its future expansion of student housing in the area.

The proposed 90,000-square-foot building on West Street would house from 260 to 280 students.

"The more people know about this project, the more they see the benefits it brings to the neighborhood," said John Nucci, Suffolk's vice president of government and community affairs.

The Suffolk Task Force Subcommittee on 10 West Street, a group of Boston residents appointed by the mayor that works with the BRA to evaluate the project, is also largely in favor of the plans, according to Margaret Carr, a downtown resident who heads the subcommittee. "The majority of the subcommittee thinks this proposal will be good for the neighborhood," said Carr.

MICHAEL CORCORAN
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Oh, I changed the thead's title to reflect current events. And if anyone can come up with something a wee bit more concise then I'd be happy to change it again.
 
City approves buildings for three area colleges

The Globe said:
City approves buildings for three area colleges

By Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff | July 20, 2007

The Boston Redevelopment Authority yesterday approved new buildings for three of the area's colleges, including a six-story academic center for Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences along Huntington Avenue.

Opposed by neighbors several years ago when it proposed to build a student dormitory on a triangular block at Worthington Street and Huntington, the pharmacy college yesterday won approval for a multiple-use academic building instead.

The $25 million facility will house classrooms, faculty and staff offices, teaching labs, assembly space, and a technology center.

The 49,700-square-foot brick and glass building, designed by Perkins + Will of Boston in a historic district of Mission Hill, across from the main campus on Longwood Avenue, will increase the college's space by more than 10 percent.

"We're one of the first institutions to move over into Mission Hill and get that community to support our effort," said president Charles Monahan.

The BRA board of directors also approved Suffolk University's plan to build a 274-bed dormitory at 10 West St., with retail space on the first floor, in a building formerly slated for condos.

Suffolk had planned to put a dorm on Beacon Hill, but the city soured on that idea when neighbors objected.

In a third approval, Emmanuel College won permission to build a 47,000-square-foot academic science building in the Fenway area.

Now 184 years old, Mass. College of Pharmacy, with 3,300 students and campuses also in Worcester and Manchester, N.H., is the oldest institution of higher education in Boston, and the second oldest pharmacy college.

Ellen Moore of Worthington Street in Mission Hill opposed a dormitory at 662-670 Huntington Ave., a former gas station, but said she and many others are happy with the plan approved yesterday, for a building with other academic uses. The building's height, which has been increased from 60 to 84 feet, isn't popular, Moore said, "But they needed it. We understood their reasons."

Under an agreement with the city, the college will clear snow on sidewalks around the building, pay for Boston Police details on weekends, pick up litter and remove graffiti in the area, and pay for fencing and trees in the neighborhood.

The building is expected to be completed in early 2009.

Mass. College of Pharmacy built a dormitory on Longwood Avenue to house students it had planned to put in the Huntington Avenue building. The college now provides living space to a quarter of its students; 10 years ago it had no campus housing.

Monahan said the college's School of Nursing and School of Physician Assistant Studies will move into the new facility, making more room in other buildings for its staff and faculty of 300.

It offers degrees in pharmacy, nursing, environmental sciences, and health psychology, and has no current plans to expand further in Boston, Monahan said. "It's very valuable real estate here," he said. "This is the high-rent district."

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.
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Should this be three threads? Suffolk already has their own thread should the other projects have their own as well?
 
^ Perhaps we could have seperate threads, but I don't see there being much in the way of news on them, so what I'm thinking is perhaps if we create a thread entitled "Fenway-Area College Developments" or something similarly broad to cover any and all of the schools in the area. I know there's already a Simmons College thread, and I forget if one was started for Wheelock or not (they just had their institutional master plan approved a month or two ago), so maybe we could just fold them all up into one mega giant super thread? What say you, Van?
 
doesn't seem to hurt to have nidividual threads

this one doesnt seem to be suffering from a lack of posts
 
Yes, but this thread has covered not only the 10 West project, but the old tower proposal for Beacon Hill, both of which have garnered lots of controversy and publicity.

Take the Simmons College thread as an example: http://architecturalboston.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=601
It hardly made any news and has only gotten 6 posts, half of which were just me posting photos; no discussion is really happening.
 
Bah, too many articles in the Courant.

To summarize, Suffolk is proposing to raze 20 Somerset, the Metropolitan District Commission headquarters. Residents, Rep. Marz, are possibly going to oppose, of course.
 
I'm all for the right of a property owner to do as he wishes, within zoning but the potential loss of two significant early 20th Century commercial buildings within a 1/4 mile of each other disturbs me. There are few examples of major buildings built at that time and what is gone is gone forever.
 
I'm with you Scott. From a cityscape standpoint we lose a lot. Why not build on a vacant lot somewhere or raze a smaller less significant building. Reuse is another option.
 
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