![\"Leventhal](\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/today\/files\/2015\/10\/h_butoday_2015AG25-121_sm.jpg\")
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Transforming the building into an \u201cexuberant, extroverted admissions reception center\u201d started with a more welcoming entry and a canopy in bright BU red. Photos by Anton Grassl\/Esto.<\/em><\/p>\n For prospective students and their parents, the Alan and Sherry Leventhal Center<\/a>\u00a0is BU\u2019s new front door. The striking International Style<\/a>\u00a0building at 233 Bay State Road, formerly BU\u2019s Hillel House, underwent a major renovation before reopening in March 2014 as the admissions reception center. Now it\u2019s an award winner.<\/p>\n The Leventhal Center will receive a 2015 Preservation Achievement Award<\/a>\u00a0from the Boston Preservation Alliance<\/a>\u00a0in a ceremony tonight at the Cutler Majestic Theatre. The honor recognizes outstanding achievement in historic preservation and compatible new construction.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that BU not only figured out a way to reuse this building, but to make it a new focal point on campus was something that was really of interest to us,\u201d says Boston Preservation Alliance executive director Greg Galer.<\/p>\n The desire to create that focal point is the reason the design by Boston architectural firm Goody Clancy<\/a>\u00a0included a glass canopy in BU red above the main entrance, says Gary Nicksa, BU senior vice president for operations. \u201cI used it during Move-in weekend,\u201d he says. \u201cSomeone was looking for the admissions center. I pointed them to this street and said, \u2018Look for the stone building with the red glass canopy above the main entrance.\u2019 It gave it that signature element.\u201d<\/p>\n In fall 2014, the center was named for BU trustee emeritus Alan Leventhal (Hon.\u201909), chair of the Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2008, and his wife, Sherry Leventhal, both longtime University benefactors.<\/p>\n \u201cThe center has completely revamped the visitor experience,\u201d says Laurie Pohl, vice president for enrollment and student affairs. \u201cIt allows us to accommodate more people and give them a better experience.\u201d<\/p>\n The original structure, the University\u2019s Hillel House until 2005, when the new Florence and Chafetz Hillel House opened, was built in 1953 by the Boston architectural firm of Krokyn and Browne, which also designed the Circle Theatre in Cleveland Circle, the West Newton Cinema, and other public buildings. The building\u2019s International Style features include a steamlined horizontal look that subtly references the speeding traffic on Storrow Drive, Galer says, as well as a curved prow. The renovation sends the message that mid-century modern buildings from the 1950s and \u201960s are worthy of preservation. \u201cBU has a big campus,\u201d he says. \u201cThey could have made an awful lot of buildings their admissions center, and they chose this one.\u201d<\/p>\n The architects say the makeover presented both structural and functional challenges because of the building\u2019s triangular footprint, a tightly constricted site, and the requirements of a high-traffic admissions center with as many as 2,000 visitors a day at peak times in the spring and fall.<\/p>\n \u201cThe major accomplishment through the design process\u2014how to get the building to transform into this exuberant, extroverted admissions reception center\u2014started with the entrance,\u201d says Goody Clancy project manager Todd Symonds, a firm associate principal. \u201cIt really let the building be more welcoming.\u201d To accomplish that, the architects replaced a dark, recessed entrance with the more inviting grade-level entrance with the red glass canopy.<\/p>\n The distinctive BU red is used judiciously throughout, even in fabrics and upholstery. \u201cIt was really important for all of us how to have the building be branded as a Boston University building, but at the same time feel comfortable and welcoming,\u201d says Symonds.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was unique was working with the admissions folks and trying to figure out what the choreography would be to bring in all these parents with their prospective students,\u201d says project architect Arjun Mande, also a Goody Clancy associate principal. \u201cThey worked with us and with the building to see how it would work best. That process was really very interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n A 2,500-square-foot addition on the building\u2019s north side has improved visitor flow and offers a striking view to people on Storrow Drive.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n The architects created a 150-seat auditorium in the building\u2019s existing structure and added a mostly glass 2,500-square-foot addition on the north side that improves the flow of visitors and offers a striking view for people on Storrow Drive. The project also opened up the first floor, replacing narrow, slotlike windows on the Bay State Road side with strips of large glass panes.<\/span><\/p>\n By adding all that glass, \u201cthat outside-inside connection started to happen,\u201d says Mande. \u201cWe started calling it \u2018BU on Stage.\u2019 When you\u2019re sitting in the waiting room and looking outside, you have the river on one side, BU Beach on one side, and the campus on the third. I think that was like the key moment. Once you opened it up, it connected really well to the campus, and it all started to make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n Pohl says the central location, the dedicated auditorium, and the technology in the new building allow for more sessions for prospective students and parents and make it possible to customize for specific purposes.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone who\u2019s been in the building loves the space,\u201d Pohl says. \u201cIt\u2019s very welcoming, it\u2019s bright. That whole back side, looking out over the river and the Esplanade, that\u2019s part of our campus too, and we\u2019ve made that visible to people for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n The previous student admissions reception center, which occupied the first two floors of a Bay State Road brownstone, had perhaps 4,000 square feet total, Nicksa notes, while the new one has more than 19,000 square feet.<\/p>\n Bay State Road was also realigned, moving traffic away from the building and eliminating a few parking spaces, which enabled the width of the sidewalk to be tripled and a pedestrian plaza to be created to the west of the building, with trees and benches.<\/p>\n![\"Boston](\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/today\/files\/2015\/10\/h_butoday_2015AG25.259.jpg\")
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