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

Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

I just went back to the beginning of this thread and wow, did they really chop this thing down. The earliest rendering show at least 30 stories, that thing was massive!
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

The previous project was an independent dorm that accepted any college students and not a project under Northeastern.
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

Wow, I can't believe this was approved. This will entirely change the face of that end of campus. In other slightly-related news, after 8 years at Northeastern, 2 bachelor's degrees and a doctorate, I am no longer an NU student as of today (well, I guess as of May 6th's graduation, but today was my last day doing anything school-related). Good to see that my triple-alma-mater is expanding and rising in the rankings.
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

porter said:
Woot new development!

Will Northeastern be increasing its undergrad acceptance now that they have new space, or will this be used to eventually affect required on-campus housing for Sophomores, like what Emerson just did when their new dorms opened?
Click to expand...

Northeastern is committed to a freshman class of no more than 2800 students. There has even been talk of reducing that to 2600 students. Due to increased retention and graduation rates total enrolment is still increasing. This is a case where a constricted campus and community opposition to expansion has helped Northeastern. While BU has increased the size of its freshman class in the last decade, Northeastern has held it constant and dramatically increased entering student stats.

As for old Scollay Square, I remember it as a child. Any lament for its destruction is rose colored nostalgia.
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

Have you ever been to Government Center?
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

Yes, and it is better than old Scollay Square!
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

how so?

(though the proper comparison is between Government Center and what Scollay Square would have gradually evolved into over 50 years had it not been demolished)
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

Any more recent rendering of the "approved" dorm? Also, dshoost88, you've suggested it will be 17 stories and the Herald say 16: why the discrepancy?
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

Tombstoner said:
Any more recent rendering of the "approved" dorm? Also, dshoost88, you've suggested it will be 17 stories and the Herald say 16: why the discrepancy?
Click to expand...

I have no idea who is working the PR desk at the BRA or the journalists working at the Boston Herald, but they should really fact-check. If you go to this website (as I posted before) you can see a comprehensive look at the new residence hall plan:

http://www.northeastern.edu/governmentrelations/pdfs/arch.pdf

Nothing has changed about this plan (except possibly the configuration of the multi-use space on the top floor, but that just requires moving some drywall around... no effect on the final appearance of the building).

The New Residence Hall Will Be 17 Stories!
There will be a subterranean level for class spaces; the first level will be security clearance for the building, a media room, and a common room; the 2nd through 16th floors will be 720 beds in student housing, as well as common rooms on each floor for students to chill out in; and the 17th floor will be a multi-purpose space offering great views of the Boston skyline & NU's campus, as well as a couple study rooms to be used at the residents' leisure.

The BRA didn't call for any extra concessions/modifications on this project.
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

Tombstoner said:
Any more recent rendering of the "approved" dorm? Also, dshoost88, you've suggested it will be 17 stories and the Herald say 16: why the discrepancy?
Click to expand...

Don't believe everything you read in the Herald. Sloppy reporting.

@Ron: Back in the 1960's, the City Hall Plaza was praised as a fantastic urban enhancement for Boston. Finally, there would be a gathering place for Bostonians! It was likened to the large urban squares of European cities. There would be festivals, concerts, celebrations there. Remember that this was the idealistic '60's. From the start though, the perimeter of the plaza was compromised. The bland JFK building, the widened Cambridge St., the empty side of the plaza towards Haymarket Square etc.

Keep in mind that in the 1960's Boston was a backwater in every sense of the term. The plaza was seen as a break from the dumpy, crowded, depressed city that existed then. As for the possible evolution of Scollay Square had it survived, most likely it would have been another Combat Zone, languishing for decades as a second bookend on a depressed downtown.

Interestingly, Montreal has recently built a Place des Spectacles adjacent to the city's cultural hub. It is used in a way that City Hall Plaza was intended to be used. Go to their Jazz Festival this summer to see what could have been in Boston.
http://www.quartierdesspectacles.com/a-propos/

By the way, I agree that the loss of the old West End was a tragedy but not Scollay Square.
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

Any architects out there look at the plans posted? How is the far left of the plan code compliant for egress?

cca
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

EDITED:

While I haven't read much in the way of opposition from the neighborhood during the time this project has been discussed, I realize there are those who are against this.

However, I think there is far less opposition from when it was going to be a private dormitory and when it was going to be 30-stories. I think the neighbors (many) might be pleased with how this is turning out. City Councilor Mike Ross is on board, as well, which helps and reflects, presumably, that the neighbors are in favor (no politician would take an opposing side).

I have no sympathy for those who are against this because they're losing their gym. I mean, c'mon.
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

TomOfBoston said:
Yes, and it is better than old Scollay Square!
Click to expand...

Nonsense.

1880s.jpg

Scollay 1880s

1955CambridgeSt.jpg

1950s
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

Uh, that pic is from circa 1880. Scollay Square looked a wee bit different in the 1950's.

Edit: Oh you just posted a 1950's pic. A plaza is better IMHO.
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

I tend to think that Scollay Square would have slowly revitalized, just as Davis Square, the South End, Jamaica Plain, and even the ex-Combat Zone have during the same time interval.
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

Just to be clear, I realized there was a typo and the approval was for 17 stories. I was ranting about the reduction from GrandMarc's 30 to the current 17. That's 13 full stories.

Short-sighted, narrow-minded, nonsense. I mean seriously, a shadow on the plaza in front of Symphony Hall (which has no windows into the space that really fricken counts)?

Morons.
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

If anyone really wants to improve the appearance of Huntington Avenue, they should push to have new facades put on the two Symphony Towers across from Symphony Hall. I know that they are "affordable housing" and as such are usually exempt from achitectural criticism, unlike Northeastern.
 
Re: YMCA/ Northeastern Dorm (formerly GrandMarc at St. Botolph)

TomOfBoston said:
If anyone really wants to improve the appearance of Huntington Avenue, they should push to have new facades put on the two Symphony Towers across from Symphony Hall. I know that they are "affordable housing" and as such are usually exempt from achitectural criticism, unlike Northeastern.
Click to expand...

Those are housing for the elderly and special needs. A reclad would be welcome, seeing how they make an awful gateway to the South End.
 
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