While all eyes are on the November opening of Norman Foster’s new $343 million "American Wing" at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Northeastern University has agreed to watch over another of the museum’s jewels, The Forsyth Building, which the MFA purchased for $60 million in 2007.
Northeastern plans to finalize a lease this fall that will allow Northeastern to take occupancy of the entire 115,000-square-foot research building by year’s end, Michael Armini, senior vice president for external affairs at Northeastern University, told Banker & Tradesman.
"Northeastern is really expanding its research enterprise," Armini said. "The Forsyth Building gives us a wonderful opportunity to do that without having to build."
Armini said it was the university’s intent to maintain the current lab use of the property. The lease will require the approval of the Boston Redevelopment Authority under Northeastern’s Institutional Master Plan, and the university expects a vote on an amended plan in the early fall.
"We began talking to Northeastern a few months ago," said Dawn Griffin, director of public relations of the museum.
The length of term of the lease is still a subject of discussions given the need to plan for the eventual renovation of the property. The museum has hired Ann Beha Architects of Boston to design the Forsyth’s restoration as the Museum of Fine Arts Study Center, which will bring together the museum’s curators, conservators, libraries, archives and print rooms.
The Forsyth Institute, which was founded in 1906 and considered the world’s leading research organization dedicated to oral health, is settling into a new home at 245 First St. in East Cambridge.
