Hey, there! Log in / Register
Boston University plans 19-story building on Commonwealth Avenue
By adamg on Thu, 09/27/2018 - 11:49pm
The Daily Free Press reports BU has told the BPDA it will file plans for a 19-story data-sciences building on what is now a parking lot on Comm. Ave. at Granby Street.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
That was one of the better
That was one of the better parking lots.
I know...
My first thought is oh no! now everyone will be in MY parking lot!
A surface level parking lot
A surface level parking lot has zero reason to exist in Boston, especially near the center.
How long before someone
How long before someone complains that it's not new dorm space? Get those meddling kids out of our rental market!
When I read the headline my
When I read the headline my first thought was, "Oh cool, finally a new dorm."
BPDA cares more about $$$$
BPDA cares more about $$$$ than getting students out of the workforce housing market.
Middle class? What middle class?
its about the students choice
Students have free will. While many colleges require first year students to live on campus, students do not want to live on campus afterwards because they cannot throw parties, drink alcohol, smoke, have multiple guests over, etc, etc.
Until colleges are more lenient with dorm policy, which will never happen because of liability issues, this will ALWAYS be a problem.
And if you don't think universities like to house students, ask them how much they make per bed. Dorm housing and meal plans = $$$$$$ for the school.
that said...
BU really does need more dorm space.
BU just gained all of the
BU just gained all of the residence halls on the old Wheelock campus, so I think they're doing just fine.
OR...
To stop raising admission numbers. It's like watching a drink spill on a restaurant table, creeping towards the edge where you know it's going to end up on your lap.
Go look it up
Students have a legal right to rent if they want. Why don't you complain about the slumlords who would rather pack 8 kids to a 3 bedroom apartment instead renting to a family. It's not BU's fault students don't choose to live on campus -- the school offers them housing if they want it. The BU housing is a lot nicer than the off campus fire traps too.
BU's dorms are more expensive
BU's dorms are more expensive monthly than a lot of the dumpy places in Allston. it was cheaper for me to live off campus for 12 months, by myself, my senior year than it was to live on campus, with a roommate, for 9 months.
BU is using their "scarce" housing as an excuse to raise the rates of staying on campus. build more dorms and lower the monthly costs. you don't pay taxes for christs sake.
If the untimely death of Binland Lee five and a half years ago
If the untimely death of B. U. student Binland Lee five and a half years ago is any indication, students who live in those supposedly cheap, dumpy Allston apartments and houses over in Allston-Brighton are in far more danger, not only security-wise, and through unscrupulous slum-lords like the one that Binland Lee and several other roommates lived in, students themselves all too often engage in behaviors that put them at risk.
Their landlady may have had blood on her hands, due to her failing to implement a second egress for the attic bedroom that Binland Lee slept in, but some of her roommates, too, were partly accountable for her death. Not only had some of her roommates been smoking when and where they shouldn't have been (In a very old, dilapidated house which was more than likely built at or before the 20th century, where the wiring and the building itself was not updated.), but Binland Lee's roommates failed to dispose of their smoking materials properly. The fire department said that was the cause of the fire.
If I were a student at B. U. right now, I'd rather live in a dorm, or, at least, a University-managed apartment. I'd be much safer.
If your dumpy Allston apartment that you lived in during your
Senior year at B U is any indication, cost-wise, that apartment was probably a true-blue rat-trap and fire trap, that was probably not very secure, or well-maintained. If I'm not mistaken, the place where you lived was more than likely built at or before the turn of the 20th century, and the wiring or whatever wasn't updated by your landlord wasn't updated, either.
Don't forget the mandatory
Don't forget the mandatory meal plans! I was in a small brownstone dorm a good 15-20min walk from the nearest dining hall and still had to pay through the nose for meals that were too stupidly inconvenient to show up for. And unless I was prepared to eat myself into a coma, a quick bite at any of the dozens of places on my actual route would have been much, much cheaper.
My schedule didn't always take me through parts of campus with ANY real dining hall and not all cafes (looking at you, science building) took the limited flex points. You could get a partial refund at year's end but it was something insulting like 30 cents on the dollar.
This was in the early aughts but I can't imagine it's gotten better. What a racket.
I agree, BlackKat.
If large universities such as BU, Northeastern, and other colleges and universities put a cap on their yearly admissions, it would help matters a great deal. Many students who first enter college at a very young age should live in a more protected and supervised environment such as a dorm, at least for the first year or so at college, and a lot of kids who enter college are kids who should've been wait-listed.
Good for BU
It's squarely in the campus and not displacing anything or anyone. (Except perhaps the memory of a very 1980s Burger King.)
The memories
I used to get BK's tasteless onion rings and a large chocolate shake and hang there with my friends. Damn you positive progress!
Yes, Yes
Always open late and for when your palate was a little more tolerant of the King's Offerings.
I kinda miss that BK
I lived in one of the dorms behind it on Bay State Road, and if you had a room in the back you could hear people at the drive-through.
It's mod-ular
My department (CS) is one of the groups scheduled to move into the new building, probably in 2020. The drawings I've sen are very mod, with a 'stacked, offset' look and lots of glass. There are some nice elevated terraces that look out over the river and the city. It doesn't really blend in with all the brownstones in the area, and seems freakishly tall to me compared to everything else this side of campus (though I suppose Warren Towers is about the same height). We definitely need the academic space, though, and I am looking forward to seeing how it all turns out.