Northeastern University - Institutional Master Plan

[dshoost88]

CLICK HERE TO READ NU'S INSTITUTIONAL MASTER PLAN NOTIFICATION FORM

Just reposting the link at the top of this new page.

Also, I've attended every one of these task force meetings (although last night's was more a misguided city council diatribe on the university). The positive news from the school regarding the plan is that NU has its priorities in line. Despite the moaning and groaning from community members looking for concession after concession from the school, I'm proud that NU has continually been committed to immediately meeting the needs of its students and faculty first. They've made it clear that the 600,000 square feet of science, engineering, and academic space on the Columbus Lot is their first priority with the IMP.

To quote one of the VP's from the school, they've begun working with architects for the Columbus site and that "there has never been this kind of development in Roxbury this side of the train tracks. And we anticipate it will lead to other developments and investment in the community in the future."

And lastly, the school is very keen to redevelop Cabot as stated in the IMP. It's pretty clear they'd like to mitigate for its demolition first by making the athletic village complexes by Matthews Arena. (*Most exciting part to me is that the school's talking with the MBTA about orange line access to the Mass Ave stop from Gainsborough/Camden Streets!)

 

[datadyne007]

Re the Burnstein/Rubenstein redevelopment: The height of that tower will match or compliment the height of WIT's innovation tower directly next to it

 

[TomOfBoston]

Northeastern will be announcing a $1 billion capital campaign in Spring, 2013. A portion of this will go to construction, the rest to the endowment. The goal is the same as BU's recently announced campaign. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

[DominusNovus]

Myself and many other NU students know there are no plans for a football field or a rebirth of the football program. Northeastern is focusing on improving academics and standing. There are no rumblings anywhere of football making a return, or the whole campus would be talking about it- trust me.

Doesn't help that those of us that care the most (read: the ones that agreed to the initial fees to fund the stadium) have graduated.

 

[JohnAKeith]

John Tobin for mayor!

 

[Downburst]

Northeastern's hosting a meeting on the IMP on Fevruary 6 for faculty students. It falls during one of my classes but I might attend anyways. If I do end up going I'll post whatever new info I get here.

From the Dean of the Arts Media and Design College:

Please join us on Wednesday February 6th at 12pm in 135 Shillman, for a special presentation for our college about Northeastern’s Institutional Master Plan. This presentation will be given by Patrick Tedesco, an architect at Chan Krieger NBBJ, the firm hired by Northeastern to work on the Master Plan. The presentation will last approximately 30 minutes and will be followed by Q&A. This will be a great opportunity to learn and ask questions about the Master Plan and the future of Northeastern, and I hope you will be able to attend.

 

[DominusNovus]

Just to keep things nice and neat, I'm replying to the post of the new design for the Columbus lot in the YMCA thread:

http://www.payette.com/post/1575855-new-project-at-northeastern-university

I like. Granted, the stadium that the students paid for would have been a nice addition, but this is really interesting. I'm curious about the bridges in general, looks like they just hang out over the tracks (the shadows imply that they don't go down to ground level). And that bridge in the 2nd drawing, very odd. 3 levels... does it connect to the library and engineering building, or will it just stick between them for... no reason whatsoever.

 

[Reznor]

Where is the current science center on campus? Is there a redevelopment plan for this building?

 

[dshoost88]

... that bridge in the 2nd drawing, very odd. 3 levels... does it connect to the library and engineering building, or will it just stick between them for... no reason whatsoever.

I'm confident that that three-level bridge in Phase 2 will connect directly to the Egan Research Center, which is currently where much of the university's advanced scientific research takes place (former NASA lab, anti-gravity chamber, nanotechnology, etc.).

Where is the current science center on campus? Is there a redevelopment plan for this building?

Northeastern currently has the Science Quad (Mugar, Hurtig, and Robinson Halls) located east of the Curry Student Center & the Snell Library. There is also the Snell Engineering Center, Egan Research Center, Forsyth Building, and Churchill Hall which all feature lab spaces used mainly by College of Engineering Students. Lastly, there is the Behrakis Health Sciences Center used exclusively by the Bouvé College of Health Sciences.

While there have been facelifts over the years to some of the older science buildings, the 1st and 2nd phases of development on the Columbus Lot will not only add critical research/facility space needed for those programs, but also enable Northeastern to do more extensive renovations to their existing science buildings (the older ones). The master planners have pointed out that the Sciences Quad will get a major overhaul down the road, also connecting those buildings and adding significant square footage (especially to Robinson Hall).

 

[TomOfBoston]

My guess is that the Mugar, Robinson, Hurtig buildings will be renovated for science teaching labs and research will be concentrated in the new quad. The cost of the new buildings can be charged to research grants and recovered though indirect cost rates.

I am also guessing that the Matthews/Gainsborough rec complex will be built in the next few years too.

DominusNovus: Northeastern football is dead, time to move on.

 

[Brad Plaid]

As this is only a concept design you can bet good money the real thing will be considerably more conservative. Would love to lose that bet though.

 

[TomOfBoston]

When I first saw the plans for West Village in the mid 90's, I figured that they would likely end up as high rise boxes, but I was wrong.

Although my guess is that the flyover pedestrian bridges will be simpler.

 

[DominusNovus]

Taking a second look, I'm somewhat intrigued by the arrangement of the athletic fields on the opposite side of the garage. Last I checked, thats all still a community baseball field, isn't it? I know that there's some tennis courts just to the left, off-picture. Perhaps the inclusion of tennis courts in this design indicates that NU's planning on doing something there. Didn't see anything while skimming the IMP.

 

[dshoost88]

Taking a second look, I'm somewhat intrigued by the arrangement of the athletic fields on the opposite side of the garage. Last I checked, thats all still a community baseball field, isn't it? I know that there's some tennis courts just to the left, off-picture. Perhaps the inclusion of tennis courts in this design indicates that NU's planning on doing something there. Didn't see anything while skimming the IMP.

Some NU friends of mine asked me about this when I posted this on facebook. Per what's been said at the community meetings (which notes are available for online somewhere), Parker Playground (the athletic fields and courts) still belong to the city and will remain that way. Northeastern has offered to invest a lot of money making overdue improvements to the park as a gesture of good faith to its neighbors. Their goals are to put in astroturf since the field is used very heavily year-round and to realign the footprint of the park to maximize the uses of the space.

It's funny how the volume of the community meetings fluctuates when Northeastern planners go from talking about constructing academic/research buildings to benefit the global community (loud opposition) to discussing a comparably minor investment that benefits only the local community (silent approval).

 

[TomOfBoston]

Northeastern owns a strip of land, now a parking lot, between Carter and the rail line. NU would convert this to an extension of Carter and have a formalized sharing arrangement for the entire site with the city.

 

[dshoost88]

CLICK HERE to read the final Northeastern University Institutional Master Plan.


(WARNING: THE DOCUMENT IS 487 PAGES)

 

[dshoost88]

I've learned that you all respond much faster to images than to writing, so here are a few pretty screenshots from the overwhelming document:

Lastly, here's a fun table about campus-wide transportation use:

Go, discuss! Commence! It's like a mini-freaking skyline in the middle of the city.

 

[George_Apley]

It will be awesome. Of course these buildings, like almost all university buildings built lately, are going to be VE'd to within an inch of their lives. Hopefully NU doesn't put up buildings of the caliber BU has been.

 

[KentXie]

WoAOOAOOAOooH

Too bad I already graduated so I won't get to experience any of this.

 

[Shepard]

The Burstein-Rubenstein redevelopment is the only one that actually intrigues me, being across the street from the MFA and having the potential to add density, ground floor activity and robustness to the area with up to 25 stories proposed. Hope that this one is among the first in the pipeline...