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Dental school eyes 5-story crown
By Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald Business Reporter
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Faced with the challenge of expanding in densely packed Chinatown, Tufts University is looking skyward as it plans a major expansion of its health-sciences campus.
Tufts wants to add another 90,000 square feet to the university?s dental school on Kneeland Street, enough to fill a sizable new academic building.
But instead of building out, Tufts is proposing to build up, adding another five stories onto its 10-story dental school.
Joseph Castellana, executive dean at Tufts dental school, said the university could have built on another site in the neighborhood, but opted not to do so.
A separate building would have required heavy and noisy foundation work that would have been disruptive to one of the city?s most heavily populated neighborhoods.
It would also cost more - $100 million compared to $60 million for adding onto the roof of the dental school?s complex at One Kneeland. The building, which dates to the 1970s, was originally designed to accommodate 16 stories, Castellana said.
The new upper floors will include both classroom and clinical space for the school, which has 800 students and 200 full- and part-time faculty.
?We wanted to have as little impact as possible on the university and dental school and neighborhood as we could,? he said.
Lydia Lowe, head of the Chinese Progressive Association, said the Tufts proposal is unlikely to win accolades in the development-weary neighborhood, but neither does she expect a major row over it.
By Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald Business Reporter
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Faced with the challenge of expanding in densely packed Chinatown, Tufts University is looking skyward as it plans a major expansion of its health-sciences campus.
Tufts wants to add another 90,000 square feet to the university?s dental school on Kneeland Street, enough to fill a sizable new academic building.
But instead of building out, Tufts is proposing to build up, adding another five stories onto its 10-story dental school.
Joseph Castellana, executive dean at Tufts dental school, said the university could have built on another site in the neighborhood, but opted not to do so.
A separate building would have required heavy and noisy foundation work that would have been disruptive to one of the city?s most heavily populated neighborhoods.
It would also cost more - $100 million compared to $60 million for adding onto the roof of the dental school?s complex at One Kneeland. The building, which dates to the 1970s, was originally designed to accommodate 16 stories, Castellana said.
The new upper floors will include both classroom and clinical space for the school, which has 800 students and 200 full- and part-time faculty.
?We wanted to have as little impact as possible on the university and dental school and neighborhood as we could,? he said.
Lydia Lowe, head of the Chinese Progressive Association, said the Tufts proposal is unlikely to win accolades in the development-weary neighborhood, but neither does she expect a major row over it.
