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Wentworth Institute of Technology plans four new building projects including a new 630-bed residence hall and academic building to replace outdated facilities on its 31-acre Boston campus.
The projects are aligned with the school’s 30-year master plan, which seeks to add more on-campus housing and replace academic buildings to support the school’s experiential learning model, school officials say. Perkins + Will is advising the school on the master plan, which also would add more private faculty offices.
For more than a decade, Wentworth has sought to encourage more students to live on-campus, requiring first- and second-year students to live in dorms and completing a new residence hall with apartment-style features including full kitchens and private bedrooms at 525 Huntington Ave. in 2014.
“Wentworth is proud that it is the only university in the city of Boston that has been able to reduce its number of students residing off-campus,” school officials wrote in the institutional master plan submitted to the Boston Planning and Development Agency.
The document, which identifies building projects anticipated through 2033, identifies four major changes to the campus:
West Quad Academic Hall: A 5-story, 120,000-square-foot academic building including classrooms, workshop and design studios and offices to replace its Kingman and Willson halls academic buildings, located off Huntington Avenue and Ruggles Street;
Student Life Podium and Residential Tower: A 23-story, 235,000-square-foot housing complex replacing the Edwards/Rogers Hall at 572 and 574 Huntington Ave. The new complex would include 830 student beds, and a four-story podium with dining, retail and fitness space and the schools’ Center for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Consolidated Parking Garage: A 6-story, 232,320-square-foot garage on Halleck Street;
Entry Court: Two additions to the academic Wentworth Hall that would create a “front door” to the north side of the campus and upgrade accessibility.
The projects would require the removal of nearly 400 surface parking spaces, while adding 700 spaces in the new Halleck Street garage.
Nearly 1,800 of Wentworth’s 3,500 students currently live on campus, and Wentworth is the only college in Boston that has reduced off-campus housing in recent years, the filing states.
The most recent residential building, completed in 2014, contains 72 apartment-style rooms totaling 305 beds at 525 Huntington Ave.
In February, Wentworth also submitted a proposal to partner with The Fallon Co., Waldwin Development and The Owens Co. on a two-building, 630,000-square-foot office and lab project at 500 Huntington Ave. to replace an athletic field, parking lot and three small buildings.
