GrandMarc Residence Hall (YMCA) @ Northeastern U | 291 St. Botolph Street | Fenway

Most of the protective covering on the silver facade has been removed. This will be the building's final look, more or less.



I'm pretty sure the cell transmitters are new, and they're gross. At least the scaffolding is finally coming down on the Y...













I curse whoever thought "puke orange" was a good color for a facade...
 
I don't mind the puke orange. The unevenness and blotchiness of the color makes it look like rusty metal, and gives the building a sort of retro/industrial look. Contrasted with the shiny silver part (is that real metal?) it kind of works for me.

The only thing I truly dislike about this building are the tan panels. I curse whoever thought that was a good idea. Such a lame attempt to make the facade more visually interesting, and they only made it worse. The colors do not sit well together. I keep thinking there must be some reason to have introduced such a bad design element, maybe the tan panels form letters or a picture or something, maybe a negative image of President Aoun's face or something, but no. Nothing. They're just inexplicably bad.
 
I assume students are moving in this weekend. When will this building be ready for occupancy?
 
Like a lot of things that look bad going up, the final product's turned into more of an "ehh" than an "ugh."
 
Reznor said:
I assume students are moving in this weekend. When will this building be ready for occupancy?
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No way. There's a lot of interior to be finished. I feel like this was the stage that International Village was in my senior year, spring '09, when it opened up the following autumn.
 
East Village (aka GrandMarc) is opening in the spring 2015 semester, 4 months behind its hoped for fall 2014 opening. The university has about 550+ freshmen that participate in NUin (study abroad their first fall semester, then must move on campus in the spring), so I would bet my money those students will be the first ones to move into this new residence hall. However, the suite-style apartments (floors 13-16) will most definitely be reserved for upperclassmen.

What I'm anxious to find out is whether or not the 17th floor recreation and event space will in fact be open to non E.V. residents.
 
I had hoped that the YMCA façade was being cleaned underneath the draping but it looks like it was just cornice work.
 
dshoost88 said:
East Village (aka GrandMarc) is opening in the spring 2015 semester, 4 months behind its hoped for fall 2014 opening. The university has about 550+ freshmen that participate in NUin (study abroad their first fall semester, then must move on campus in the spring), so I would bet my money those students will be the first ones to move into this new residence hall. However, the suite-style apartments (floors 13-16) will most definitely be reserved for upperclassmen.

What I'm anxious to find out is whether or not the 17th floor recreation and event space will in fact be open to non E.V. residents.
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Remind me again: Is NU actually increasing the size of their student body by as much as or more than the new units or is it staying the same?
 
I believe that the student body size has remained relatively constant over the last few years. The number of seats offered last year (2,800) is the same amount that were offered for my class (in 2011).

That said, I know for a fact that more accepted students decided to enroll with Northeastern this year than what was expected. The residence halls are at 100% capacity right now. Maybe even a bit above that with forced doubles/triples existing in places.
 
This building is as "par for the course" as it gets.
 
Downburst said:
I believe that the student body size has remained relatively constant over the last few years. The number of seats offered last year (2,800) is the same amount that were offered for my class (in 2011).

That said, I know for a fact that more accepted students decided to enroll with Northeastern this year than what was expected. The residence halls are at 100% capacity right now. Maybe even a bit above that with forced doubles/triples existing in places.
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I think this is because of the on campus residency requirement for freshman AND sophomores now (correct me if I'm wrong). When I went to NU a few years back it was just freshman.

dshoost88 said:
East Village (aka GrandMarc) is opening in the spring 2015 semester, 4 months behind its hoped for fall 2014 opening. The university has about 550+ freshmen that participate in NUin (study abroad their first fall semester, then must move on campus in the spring), so I would bet my money those students will be the first ones to move into this new residence hall. However, the suite-style apartments (floors 13-16) will most definitely be reserved for upperclassmen.

What I'm anxious to find out is whether or not the 17th floor recreation and event space will in fact be open to non E.V. residents.
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I would assume that it will be EV residents only. I know the gym at IV is for residents of that building only.
 
Downburst said:
I believe that the student body size has remained relatively constant over the last few years. The number of seats offered last year (2,800) is the same amount that were offered for my class (in 2011).

That said, I know for a fact that more accepted students decided to enroll with Northeastern this year than what was expected. The residence halls are at 100% capacity right now. Maybe even a bit above that with forced doubles/triples existing in places.
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Northeastern has publicly shared for years that they have a goal of having 2,800 freshmen begin classes each fall semester, which they've more or less adhered to the last decade (as far as I know). What they aren't as quick to advertise, however, are the facts that A- student retention has increased dramatically over the last 20 years, and B- the number of freshmen beginning in the spring semester via NUin has increased considerably from 30-40 students in 2007 to 550 students annually today.

So while Northeastern May have averaged 3,000 net new students a year in the past, they're veering much closer to 4,000 a year now. And with 75%+ of them doing 5 years instead of 4, that means the undergrad population is growing closer to 20,000 students... Not 15,000.
 
dshoost88 said:
Northeastern has publicly shared for years that they have a goal of having 2,800 freshmen begin classes each fall semester, which they've more or less adhered to the last decade (as far as I know). What they aren't as quick to advertise, however, are the facts that A- student retention has increased dramatically over the last 20 years, and B- the number of freshmen beginning in the spring semester via NUin has increased considerably from 30-40 students in 2007 to 550 students annually today.

So while Northeastern May have averaged 3,000 net new students a year in the past, they're veering much closer to 4,000 a year now. And with 75%+ of them doing 5 years instead of 4, that means the undergrad population is growing closer to 20,000 students... Not 15,000.
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Ah, so basicall5y what you're saying is this building will hardly make a dent in getting students on campus and stop them from consuming market rate units, independently leased or otherwise leased by NU.
 
According to Northeastern's Common Data Set, full time undergraduate enrolment in Fall, 2013 was 16,500. Also, there were way more than "30-40" January starts in 2007.

Freshman retention is at 96% which is very high. NU must be doing something right.
 
TomOfBoston said:
According to Northeastern's Common Data Set, full time undergraduate enrolment in Fall, 2013 was 16,500. Also, there were way more than "30-40" January starts in 2007.

Freshman retention is at 96% which is very high. NU must be doing something right.
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In 2007-08 (my freshman year), NUin was a pilot, optional program for Jan-start students. So while there were only 30-40 that participated in it that year, there were still several hundred Jan-start freshmen, and somewhere in the ballpark of 500+ transfer students. But around the 2011-2012 school year, NU made NUin mandatory for any "Jan-start" freshmen (i.e. when you applied for the fall semester as a freshman, you were either admitted to start in fall or start NUin in the fall... you couldn't hold off until January). And my freshman year, retention was closer to 85%. It has consistently increased 1-2% a year since then, which sounds small, but is almost 50-100 additional students each year staying on campus. So the numbers add up.

Freshman retention at 96% is an excellent problem for the school (for any school). Unfortunately, it's an issue when it comes to housing. Northeastern needs the equivalent of 8 more International Villages if it really wants to be able to house all of its students on campus. GrandMarc barely scratches the surface, but it's certainly a positive. Meanwhile, the school is doing $3 billion-worth of investment in new academic space in next decade on last existing parking lots on campus pretty much. So where could you possibly fit 8 more International Villages near campus is the billion-dollar question.
 
DigitalSciGuy said:
Ah, so basicall5y what you're saying is this building will hardly make a dent in getting students on campus and stop them from consuming market rate units, independently leased or otherwise leased by NU.
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I doubt that it will make a dent but it's a start.

I was surprised at the numbers in this recent Globe Metro article (for all Boston public and private colleges, not just Northeastern):

"The number of undergraduate and graduate students living off campus in Boston jumped by 36 percent, to more than 45,000, between 2006 and last year, according to reports filed with the city clerk by private universities with a Boston presence and data that three public colleges provided the Globe. Many of the additional students are pouring into neighborhoods such as Mission Hill, Fenway, and Brighton."
 
The master plan includes two additional residence halls totalling 1000 beds. Beyond that the only options for housing would be air rights over the MBTA line.
 
TomOfBoston said:
The master plan includes two additional residence halls totalling 1000 beds. Beyond that the only options for housing would be air rights over the MBTA line.
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Astride the Orange Line is probably what they'll have to end up doing...
 
joebos said:
I doubt that it will make a dent but it's a start.

"The number of undergraduate and graduate students living off campus in Boston jumped by 36 percent, to more than 45,000, between 2006 and last year, according to reports filed with the city clerk by private universities with a Boston presence and data that three public colleges provided the Globe. Many of the additional students are pouring into neighborhoods such as Mission Hill, Fenway, and Brighton."
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Building dorms in the city seems as difficult as building high in the city. Neighborhood after neighborhood screams and moans about the students living among them but whenever a school announces plans to build dorms, the same neighborhoods (BC, Northeastern, Suffolk as I remember all had to jump through hoops or drastically change building plans) scream bloody murder about height or location or numbers, etc. It's amazing to me.
 
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