Northeastern eyes dorms

[Scott]

Isn't Storrel Dr in High Park?

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

No words can describe this monstrosity. (well, actually, that's one)

For bigger shots, click here.

And the projects across the street, just for comparison.

 

[AdamBC]

 

[Charlie_mta]

The old housing project is an infinitely better design than the new Northeastern dorms. The housing project has a human scale, the buildings and open spaces are well placed, and the brick and stone is well detailed and crafted. In contrast, the dorms are huge looming concrete paneled monoliths that are cheap and dehumanizing.

I'm thinking Northeastern put up these crappy, Soviet looking dorms in that neighborhood because it is a marginal area with a weak NIMBY factor. After all, people in public housing projects historically have not had much political or economic clout. So, Northeastern deliberately located there this ill designed, cheap crap.

 

[Lurker]

I think a more likely scenario was the deadline set to develop the site by the city required a half ass design with short construction lead times. I couldn't help noticing that the highest point of steel was topped off very quickly outside of a normal assembly sequence.

NU needed to develop that land by a certain date in 2008 to avoid losing the parcel, they needed dormitory and classroom space per agreements with the city, and as part of their self promotion program to improve US News and World Report rankings, etc. Metrics and necessities look to have outweighed aesthetics on an especially short schedule on this jumble of boxes.

To be honest I've lived in barracks in the USSR that looked better than this.

 

[czsz]

Wow, VanS's shots clarified a lot: I still have no problems with the massing or the design, but the quality of those materials...there is no redemption. None.

I do have to say, though, that I wish NEstern had taken a more unabashedly urban direction in some of its older projects. Just looking at this shot, I imagine being on the UMass Amherst campus rather than in Boston:

 

[kz1000ps]

^ Boy there's no mistaking where Northeastern's property ends in that pic! The grassy area is practically begging for a moat.

 

[castevens]

Hey! That's my front yard!

 

[TomOfBoston]

Has anyone tried contacting Northeastern (PR Dept.?) to see if this red/brown fugliness was planned or if the University is going to do anything about the inferior panels that hsve been installed?

I'll try to contact them tomorrow.

 

[dshoost88]

I'm a student in the College of Engineering @ NU (Civil/Environmental Engineering major) and I've heard a lot about Parcel 18 and other projects going up in the city. I'll try to speak with someone that knows what's going on, and I won't hesitate to share with them the opinions of most of you on this forum.

IMO, I doubt NU would let Parcel 18 become a lumpy pile of $hit eye-soar. In fact, every other student I've spoken to here is excited for the new dorms, and frankly we're a little jealous about missing the chance our sophomore year to live there (I'll be a middler by the time it's finished). The Project Manager for NU said that the dorm likely meets LEED gold certification and that they're going the extra effort to earn silver certification.

 

[castevens]

And as a 5th year student, I'm not so optimistic.

 

[TC]

The Project Manager for NU said that the dorm likely meets LEED gold certification and that they're going the extra effort to earn silver certification.

FYI. The gold certification is more difficult to get than the silver. The highest LEED Certification is Platinum. And to get that many points the building would probably need a green roof.

 

[BigE]

I would never want to live in this dorm, however, the building looks much better in person than it does in the photos. I park near there every Tuesday.

I'm just curious. With the development of NEU almost completely surrounding the projects, has there ever been any talks of NEU buying the projects from the city or state or whoever owns them?

 

[dshoost88]

FYI. The gold certification is more difficult to get than the silver. The highest LEED Certification is Platinum. And to get that many points the building would probably need a green roof.

My mistake... other way around. It meets silver and is aiming for gold. It's not just a green roof they'll need (which I hear it will have, btw). To get gold, things like the toilets, plumbing, A/C, carpeting, paints, etc. have to be taken into consideration. And it would probably be more than a year or two before they could even earn that certification, because of how the process works.

 

[kz1000ps]

These were taken between the 9th and 11th while I was driving (good ol' drive by shootings!)

cloudy

sunny

 

[awood91]

tragic

 

[Suffolk 83]

it looks a little better in person, IMO.

 

[archcritic]

What does everyone want, more of the postmodern brick Boston crap? There is no question that the precast color choice was poor, but here is a great architectural firm doing cutting edge architecture (esp. for Boston). The massing is very successful and it will be a good, sustainable building. No need to get overly pessimistic, and if you think that this is "Soviet era" architecture, then you have no clue what architecture is.

 

[cden4]

It feels very '70s to me. At least from the pictures, it seems like they didn't want to invest in any kind of architectural detail. The colored panels next to each window just look cheesy. I'm not an architect, but as a lay-person I think they could have done much better.

 

[Crit Happens]

Sorry, who's the architect again?