52 Plympton St. Image courtesy of Stack & Co.
The Boston Planning and Development Agency board Thursday night approved seven projects that will bring 285 new homes to the city, including 83 affordable units, plus a new Northeastern University arena and the school’s five-year plan to add 1,000 new dorm beds.
The Northeastern dorm plans are part of its 10-year Institutional Master Plan, the city’s vehicle to regulate development at its hospitals and schools.
If the university is able to deliver on its promises, the school will add 2,215 new, on-campus student beds by the end of 2030 and over 3,000 by 2035. The school broke ground in August on a 1,215-bed residential tower at 840 Columbus Ave. in Roxbury. in Northeastern’s plan
Mayoral administrations dating back to the late Tom Menino’s have pressured the city’s many higher education institutions to build more on-campus housing as a way to take pressure off private rental markets in historically working-class neighborhoods like Roxbury, Allston-Brighton and Mission Hill. Schools looking to respond have sometimes turned to partnerships with private student housing developers.
“Boston thrives when our leading institutions match their global reach with a deep commitment to our neighborhoods,” Mayor Michelle Wu said in a statement released after the BPDA board vote Thursday night.
But demographic change and the Trump administration’s immigration and academic funding policies appear to be putting a dent in Boston-area student numbers, leading some schools to cancel planned buildings.
In addition to OKing a planned redevelopment of its century-old Matthews Arena into a larger athletics complex at 262 St. Botolph St., the BPDA board approved a 322,500-square-foot residence hall at 21 Forsyth St., a 262,600-square-foot residence hall at the corner of Huntington Avenue and Parker Street and up to 1.62 million square feet of labs, classrooms, athletic facilities and student life spaces in five towers ranging from 180 feet to 230 feet tall.
Each new building except 21 Forsyth St. would require demolition of existing but outmoded facilities, including 230 student beds. The Forsyth Street site was cleared last year when Northeastern’s former White Hall was discovered to be structurally unsound. That means the school’s planned 910-bed Brunstein/Rubenstein building and 1,050-bed 21 Forsyth St. building will only net 1,720 new on-campus beds.
Northeastern University’s new Institutional Master Plan envisions adding two new dorms (blue) in addition to the under-construction dorm at 840 Columbus Ave. (bottom, blue) and five new academic and research buildings (yellow) in addition to a rebuilt arena and athletics building at 262 St. Botolph St. (white). Image courtesy of Northeastern University with annotations by Banker & Tradesman staff
Other Projects Approved
95 Berkeley St.
What: 92-unit office-to-residential conversion
Neighborhood: South End
Affordable Units: 18
Developers: Continuum Development and Fortuna Realty Group
Design: CBT Architects
11 Parker Hill Ave.
What: 71 new apartments plus 24 in an existing building on-site
Neighborhood: Mission Hill
Affordable Units: 12
Developer: Savage Properties
Design: Monte French Design Studio and Verdant Landscape Architecture
52 Plympton St.
What: 44 new condominiums plus ground-floor gallery space
Neighborhood: South End
Affordable Units: Eight artist live-work units
Developer: Stack + Co.
Design: Stack Architecture
555 Talbot Ave.
What: 33 new apartments plus ground-floor restaurant space
Where: Ashmont
Affordable Units: Six
Developer: Mark Little
Design: RODE Architects
555-559 Columbia Road
What: 33 new apartments above a new Boston Public Library branch
Where: Upham’s Corner
Affordable Units: 33
Developer: Civico Development
Design: DREAM Collaborative
157 Granite Ave.
What: 24 new condominiums
Where: Cedar Grove
Affordable Units: Three
Developer: Denis Keohane
Design: Spalding Tougias Architects
150 Milk St.
What: 18-unit office-to-residential conversion
Where: Downtown
Affordable Units: Three
Developer: Wingate Development
Design: Embarc
