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Emmanuel plans 19-story dorm
By adamg on Thu, 11/05/2015 - 8:52am
Emmanuel College has filed plans with the BRA for a 19-story, 691-bed dorm on its Longwood Medical Area campus.
The proposal replaces earlier plans, approved by the BRA in 2012, for a shorter dorm with more beds. The new building would have a six-story wing along Brookline Avenue, with the 19-story tower rising behind that.
The proposed new Julie Hall would replace an existing 220-bed dorm next to Beth Israel. Some of the dorm rooms would be rented to an unspecified "institutional tenant."
Local firm Elkus Manfredi designed the structure.
In its filing, Emmanuel notes its enrollment has tripled, to 1,775 students since it went co-ed in 2001.
The Project will improve the character and quality of Brookline Avenue by introducing interior spaces that display activity through a significant amount of transparent façade area, and improved landscaping between the façade and the sidewalk. This activity, visibility and landscape will not only promote the appeal and safety of walking along Brookline Avenue by adding “eyes on the street,” lighting, visual interest and aesthetic appeal, but will also help convey Emmanuel’s culture of scholarship as an important theme enhancing the image of the LMA and Boston.
Emmanuel hopes to begin the two-year construction project in May, 2016.
Julie Hall project notification form (47M PDF).
Bird's eye view of the medical area, centered on the new Julie Hall:
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
So much change
Back in the late 1990s Emmanuel had so much extra space they were renting out an unused dorm to BU who needed the extra space.
They're still renting out part of their campus
To Beth Israel.
That's the story of their success
BI pays better then BU
And non of them
Pay propperty taxes....
But
HOW MANY PARKING SPACES?!?
What's not to like?
Creates construction jobs.
Doesn't affect traffic.
Transit friendly.
Looks like a nice building.
Build it!
And takes demand pressure off
And takes demand pressure off the local rental market! We should be strongly encouraging (and allowing) colleges to build more of these.
This is part of the problem
The schools can expand as much as they want and as they expand they put increasing pressure on the private sector housing if they don't build dorms. Then they use this to pressure the city when they do want to build housing that can often times be out of character for the neighborhood (not referring specifically to this project- but it looks to be about 3 times the size of everything else and I'll go out on a limb and assume it massively exceeds current zoning).
In the meantime they pay no property taxes (although they do generate a lot of jobs and income tax for the state). The city can't survive by continuing to allow hospitals, schools, government and other tax exempt entities to expand unchecked. Not sure where the numbers are now - but over 50% of Boston's taxable property has been exempt for some time. If our new council wants to do something truly meaningful, they should work with the legislature to pass a law that says when over 50% of a municipality's property is already exempt, incremental property acquired or built by a tax exempt entity remains on the rolls and goes in a "queue". The property moves up the queue as other already tax exempt property is sold/transferred to other tax paying entities and begins paying taxes again. that way we don't end up with a town that has very few residents and businesses paying for all the services for freeloaders.
No schools, no hospitals,
No schools, no hospitals, Boston would look like Baltimore.
The only reason why so many companies are here is proximity to higher ed and med.
I mean
True, but what are they going to do, pick up all of Longwood and dump it in Chelsea?
Schools have been acting like businesses for the past twenty years. It's a shift we want to roll back, but as long as they're doing it, make 'em pay.
Lahey packed their bags and
Lahey packed their bags and moved to the burbs. Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical, BU, & MIT moved their entire campuses last century. It isn't as difficult for an institution to move as you think.
That's really not a fair comparison
Harvard Med moved to what was a pastoral setting. Not too many of them left near the city.
By the way, why are we encouraging the life blood of Boston to want to leave town?
Much more recently, Emerson College moved
from a collection of Back Bay brownstones to its present site in the Theatre District. This was within the lifetime of most readers here.
The Emerson student newspaper, The Berkeley Beacon, is called that because that's where the center of campus used to be.
Chelsea
And this would be a problem because........
We (chelsea) has a ton of brownfield sites that would be a great medical district :)
The second part of your
The second part of your comment regarding the dysfunction of the current PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) system is right on, and you propose an interesting policy idea. The PILOT system is certainly broken when there are no consistent measurements and compensation requirements used across the many different schools in the city. It needs comprehensive reform. Your "over 50% of land" idea is interesting but it could be argued that even the 50% threshold is too high. Still good food for thought and you're right, the new Council should make PILOT reform a priority. Huzzah!
However, the first part of your comment is really quite off: Yes, colleges have put huge pressures on the regional housing market by increasing enrollment without building sufficient dorms to house those new students. But the notion that we should now be upset that schools want to all of a sudden build dorms because the pressure is on the BRA to approve them quickly is a waste of civic energy. They should build dorms, and quickly! And the BRA should approve these plans, and quickly! Great, the schools finally are on board with housing their kids. Let's get the projects built before its too late. The development market is hot right now and undue permitting hurdles create delays that can derail critical project financing for these large developments.
To your point that these projects are out of line with the character of the neighborhood: first, the urban design of this building actually looks pretty aligned with the other red brick buildings of the campus as well as the many new construction buildings of the Longwood Medical Area. Second, regarding height: Please. Step away from the "height" argument. Its for your own good! Ok, being cheeky there, but 1) the Longwood Medical Area is a very dense concentration of big tall buildings and this is just another one in the mix, so why would it be out of place? 2) Anyone who has worked/dealt with real estate development in Boston knows that absolutely nothing is "as of right" in the city, meaning that because of outdated zoning that purposefully suppresses heights to artificially low levels, this project most certainly exceeds current zoning. That is why nearly every large project applies for "variances" to get to height/density that the projects and the site actually demand. This of course adds time and costs to projects (hello, high cost of housing!)
Finally, it's time to recognize that development in urban areas requires tradeoffs: if we believe that it is a priority to create lots of new housing for students and non-students alike (as it seems you do), and you believe that institutions have a responsibility to build some of that housing (as it seems you do), and you believe it is a worthwhile goal that much of that housing is economically attainable for many people (going out on a limb that you do), then we have to make a trade off to achieve those priorities. We get the amount of housing we want (almost) without sacrificing huge amounts of natural greenspace and for lesser costs (economies of scale associated with density) in exchange for more buildings that are taller with slightly smaller units located in a greater diversity of neighborhoods than we've been used to for the past 80 years. You literally can not have one with out the other in an urban environment like Boston.
Aside from basic marginal issues to consider like any large construction project, this is another good development accomplishing the goals everyone continues to say they care about. Lets recognize that height and density are not our enemies. They are the tradeoffs we make for the goals we strive for,
Fair points
1) Thank you on paragraph 1
2) I think we are mostly in agreement (and I don't really have an opinion one way or another on this project - as always - I'll leave that to the local community and I don't live, work or play there)
My concern is mainly that this is a problem of their making and the rest of us have to pay the price. this stems from the unchecked growth of the student body (tripling in 15 years?!). This is a bigger issue than we can solve here, but the city needs to control the growth of these organizations or they will devour the rest of us (for example, no variances for non-student housing expansion until you have built acceptable housing for 100% of your students on campus or God forbid - an annual per student fee for city services)
One point -you've probably missed my numerous other posts out here - I'm not opposed to height - it just needs to be planned and zoned for - not decided on a whim by the BRA. Our zoning needs a complete overhaul - and variances should be the rare exception - not the rule.
Really?
But 19 stories, really? That does seem significantly taller than other buildings in the neighborhood -- my impression only, but is there another building in that area of 20 stories? Is there more than one?
My thought too but I suspect that we're both
a little behind. That whole area has changed radically since my days there--every time I visit my doctor I'm shocked by all of the tall, shiny new buildings. I don't know about stories but weirdly, this building will not look at all out of place--look at the pic that shows it in its setting. Twenty years ago it would have towered over everything.
Start charging for parking permits
That is a beginning. Even $25 is beyond reasonable to cover expenses.
I agree that it is hard to
I agree that it is hard to find current data on this. The last info I have seen is about a decade old and uses the 50% tax exempt number. But what I find interesting is that "Higher Ed and Medical" makes up only 2.3% of the land in the City. Cemeteries take up more land within the City with 2.6%. And by far the largest tax exempt owner in Boston is the state - with Massport, DCR, MBTA, MassDOT, etc.
They don't calculate that by land area
It's done by taxable value - and many of the tax exempt properties are significantly under-assessed because it doesn't pay to spend too much time on them trying to get it right - the tax is still zero. The assessor's office has stepped up the accuracy a little bit to help with PILOT negotiations by showing them what a great deal they are getting - it has helped a little.
But you are right - no matter what you do you are probably not going to collect a dime from other governments or government entities and they are significant landholders.
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Looks good! It's a little
Looks good! It's a little tall for that immediate block, sure, but eventually that whole area is going to get eaten up by the hospitals anyway so while it sticks out a bit now in 10 years it'll be fine. Renting some rooms to the institutional tenants is an interesting idea, too, that will hopefully cut down on a little bit of traffic.
Agree though that the city needs to be more proactive in getting their share of the tax revenue.