Campus Construction Projects You Should Know About
The $550 million overhaul of Warren Towers is currently underway.
Campus Construction Projects You Should Know About
Capital improvements are underway across the Charles River and Medical Campuses
Warren Towers’ major renovation isn’t the only major transformation underway at BU (did you hear they got AC?). Across campus, multiple improvement projects are moving forward to enhance learning, housing, and research spaces, upgrade infrastructure, and create a better overall experience for the BU community. They build on a slate of projects completed over the summer.
Colleen McGinty, assistant vice president for annual capital projects, describes many of the projects on her team’s recent roster as complicated and complex. In addition to prominent, high-profile projects—such as the $550 million overhaul of Warren Towers—there are others that may go unnoticed, but that will have “some major impact on the campus,” she says.
“We are proactive and have been aggressively attacking some of our deferred maintenance,” says Michelle Maheu, associate vice president for planning design and construction. “We’ve done a lot of planning in the past year about asset renewal needs. We have almost a half a dozen facades—the skin of a building—on our radar, and things like roofs and windows. We have to deal with new materials that may not be compatible with the older materials currently in the buildings. The current energy codes weren’t in place when some of these buildings were built, so we’re addressing those.”
We are proactive and have been aggressively attacking some of our deferred maintenance. We’ve done a lot of planning in the past year about asset renewal needs. We have almost a half a dozen facades on our radar, and things like roofs and windows.
The facade renovations are some of the construction projects that began this summer and will continue throughout the fall. Dozens of other projects, overseen by Campus Planning & Operations (CPO), include new builds, renovations, and classroom and technology upgrades.
Below are several campus construction projects, both ongoing or completed, worth noting. Find the complete list here.
Warren Towers’ Tower A and Warren Dining Hall
700 Commonwealth Ave.
Warren Towers is getting a new life: a $550 million full restoration and renovation of BU’s largest residence hall and the country’s second-largest nonmilitary dormitory. Tower A reopened this fall with new air conditioning, bathrooms, student lounges, escalators, gathering spaces, and plumbing, electrical, and security systems. About 250 construction workers are on site during the academic year.
“It is a major transformation,” Maheu says of the complex, which opened in the mid-1960s. The work is first noticeable from the outside: on Tower A, brick masonry was repointed, repaired, and cleaned, and copper-colored metal now surrounds the new, larger windows. Inside, the renovation includes a major sustainability upgrade: Warren Towers will be fully electric.
The transformation extends to Warren’s fourth-floor dining hall, which also reopened this fall after a major renovation. “We got to a point this summer where we had all hands on deck, three crews working 24 hours a day, 6 days a week, to finish the space,” Maheu says. “It was intense.”
Read BU Today’s full coverage of the Warren renovation project here.
Chemistry Department Teaching Labs
712 Beacon St.
A gut renovation of the 40-year-old chemistry teaching labs on the first floor of 712 Beacon St. is wrapping up. Serving over 1,000 students per year, these spaces are the primary teaching facility for introductory chemistry courses. The renewed spaces will offer flexible learning environments, including new workbenches and fume hoods, as well as enhanced ergonomic workstations, creating a dynamic setting that supports interaction and engagement in laboratory and learning programs.
Laundry Rooms
University-Wide
Laundry equipment in student and faculty/staff residences across campus was replaced this summer with Energy Star appliances. In total, 408 washers and 416 dryers were replaced across 151 laundry rooms. This refresh also included touch-up paint in the rooms and on the floors, plus behind-the-scenes work for the plumbing department.
Launchpad
100 Bay State Road
BU Launchpad is a new initiative that provides paid 10-week summer internships to first-year students in their fields of interest (see BU Today’s recent story about the program here). This summer, spaces were renovated and earmarked for the program.
BU Academy Facade
One University Road
BU Academy’s building was constructed in 1931 as the home of the Shell Oil Company, part of Commonwealth Avenue’s historic Auto Mile. Today, the building’s origins are still visible in the scallop motif (Shell’s logo) on its concrete facade. But after almost a century of Boston winters, the facade needs reinforcement. The decorative panels are being removed and recast using 3D laser scanning, and then reinstalled. The landscaping was also refreshed with new plantings, including perennials that will replace annuals.
Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences
635 Commonwealth Ave.
In the coming year, Sargent College will receive a new roof and new HVAC equipment to advance the University’s Climate Action Plan. The project will replace a failed water-cooled chiller with an air-source heat pump that provides the same cooling capacity while reducing the building’s reliance on natural gas boilers. Heat-recovery technology will allow the new system to provide heat in winter and cooling in summer.
Dean of Students Study Lounge
George Sherman Union, 775 Commonwealth Ave.
This large study lounge, on the third floor of the GSU, received a refresh and new furniture.
Accommodated Testing Center
25 Buick St.
Students who require accommodations when taking tests currently go to a makeshift facility at 930 Commonwealth Ave., which can hold about 30 students at a time, McGinty says. A new center—adjacent to Disability & Access Services on the third floor of 25 Buick St.—will accommodate 100 students in various testing environments, including spaces for multiple students to test at the same time, individual testing rooms, and accommodations for hearing-impaired students.
BU Softball Field (Malvern Field)
89 Ashford St.
Crews worked on the third phase of this project, which has included new turf and a scoreboard. “What we’re working on right now is the stands,” McGinty says. “We’ve ordered spectator seating, and we will change the dugouts and the press booth, and do some work on the apron of the field in time for the spring season.”
Catrambone Fitness Center
72 East Concord St. (L Building)
Richard Catrambone (CAMED’92), a BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine Dean’s Advisory Board member, and his wife, Sophia Catrambone, donated $1 million to establish the Catrambone Fitness Center on the Medical Campus. The new gym—open to Medical Campus students only—was created by renovating existing space. When finished, it will house a micro-market, similar to the one at FitRec.
Classroom Audiovisual Systems
University-Wide
Classrooms in several locations, including the College of General Studies, College of Communication, the Questrom School of Business, and the L and R buildings on the Medical Campus, received updated audiovisual systems, furniture, and finishes.