Boston College files to build new archive for Catholic religious objects

Boston College has filed plans with the Boston Planning Department to build a three-story, roughly 45,000-square-foot building to store collections of religious stuff "as well as limited artwork and cultural artifacts" on a hillside between its Theology and Ministry Library and its St. John's Seminary property off Lake Street in Brighton.

Construction will require chopping down 47 trees, but BC says most of those trees aren't in very good shape and would likely have to be cut down soon anyway, even without construction of the new building:

The proposed building site has been an unmanaged woodland since the Catholic Archdiocese owned the property and continues to be unmanaged today. As a result, the majority of the stand is in fair to poor condition. Many of the oak species have dead or dying limbs, root problems, or decaying wood. The hemlocks suffer from hemlock wooly adelgid which is cost prohibitive to treat adequately. Although some are in fair condition today, they will require removal in the near future as a result of this decay and disease.

The school says it will plant 77 trees around the new building as replacements. They'll be smaller than the trees there now, but will grow. The school says its Brighton campus, on which the building will sit, currently has a tree cover of 35% of its land, and that the new plantings will retain that percentage.

BC says the building will use all-electric heating and air conditioning and that existing parking on the campus has enough space that new spaces will not be needed.

Boston College Catholic Archive Building filings.