Definite plans for a new Life Science and Engineering Building and new graduate student housing, along with likely plans for new School of Law and Computer Science buildings and Commonwealth Avenue and Kenmore Square Beautification Projects, highlight an update of Boston University’s third Master Plan, released in late December.
The document, which covers BU’s campus physical development plans over the next 10 years, includes definite plans for the Life Science and Engineering Building on Cummington Street and the graduate student housing project at 580 Commonwealth Ave. They are both ‘principle projects’ for the new plan, according to BU spokesman Kevin Carleton.
Plans for new Computer Science and School of Law buildings would be located at 665 Commonwealth Ave. and on the site of the BU Academy, respectively. Also included in the plan are less likely projects, like the possible purchase and development of train yards located in West Campus for recreational facilities and of the Allston Landing site in West Campus.
The 133-page document updates two previous Master Plans, released in 1986 and 1997. The new document is not final, and is still subject to public comment over the next several months.
In the new plan, BU outlines strategies and goals for campus development and reiterates six ‘urban design goals and objectives’ for the campus from its 1986 Master Plan: enhancing the ‘image of Commonwealth Avenue for both drivers and pedestrians,’ creating better campus ‘entry points’ at several locations, improving the ‘visual appearance and uses of Kenmore Square,’ preserving and enhancing the ‘pedestrian environment’ of Bay State Road, improving campus landscaping all along Commonwealth Avenue and constructing tall buildings along the Massachusetts Turnpike away from residential neighborhoods.
The rest of the plan details all campus sites, explaining current uses and future plans for each site. The end of the document lists BU contributions to the surrounding communities.
Community officials had mixed reactions to the document after being introduced to the update last Wednesday night as part of the BU Community Task Force. While some expressed disappointment in the completed document, saying it does not account for many of their concerns and is hard to navigate, Task Force chairwoman Pamela Beale said BU’s work has been thorough.
The Task Force also met with BU officials several times during the fall to go over the document and make comments.
‘I think the Master Plan is a very thorough document,’ said Beale, representative to the Task Force from the Kenmore Association. ‘It’s a very useful outline. It gives full disclosure, which is important to all of us, and lays out a framework for future discussion.’
Arturo Vasquez, president of the Brighton Allston Improvement Association, complained that the new document does not make enough substantive changes to the 1997 version of BU’s Master Plan.
‘This is very much a carbon copy of the Master Plan that is just past due,’ said Arturo Vasquez, president of the Brighton Allston Improvement Association. ‘If you’re going to note concerns but they’re not really addressed, then why bother?’
Robert Canterbury, vice president and Task Force representative for the Audubon Circle Neighborhood Association, said he too thought the final document did not include enough changes.
‘I just don’t think the neighborhood representatives feel they’re being listened to,’ he said. ‘We’re there because we have to be and we’re sort of tolerated.’
But Carleton said community leaders should not expect radical changes because the new plan is simply an update on old plans and a continuation of the old document.
‘Much of the material that is included is truly long term plans and possibilities,’ Carleton said. ‘Only so much of that can be done in a five year period, but that doesn’t mean we start all over again.’
Carleton said BU made ‘no substantive changes to the projects’ listed in the document after Task Force meetings. Rather, the comments helped with ‘fine details.’
‘Generally, what we have found from the community have been requests for clarifications and suggestions for fine-tuning,’ Carleton said.
Allston Civic Association president Paul Berkeley was more concerned that the document was more about BU’s dreams for the future than solid plans. Harvard and Boston College’s Master Plans are much more about reality, he said.
‘Communities had a problem with looking at this and asking, ‘what if all of those dreams come true?” he said.
Canterbury also expressed concern over the idea that this Master Plan may not include all possibilities for campus development over the next ten years, citing the Photonics Center as an example of a major project which was not included in any plan.
‘My impression is that we don’t really believe that the projects that are listed are the only ones that are going to be pursued in the next 10 years,’ Canterbury said. ‘The Photonics Center was never in a master plan.’
Specific plans for all new campus projects must still go through the full approval and comment process, Carleton said. The Master Plan is collection of current BU campus ideas and plans, but does not preclude further development and does not mean all projects are final.
‘The Master Plan is essentially a list of potential plans and factors that affect those plans,’ he said. ‘This is not the proposal for a plan itself.’
Beale said she understands BU’s inclusion of all of its plans, both definite and not, in the updated Master Plan. Because it is BU’s document, they have the right to put all of their wishes on the table she said.
The Master Plan process comes at the same time as BU officials are pushing ahead on concrete plans for the new Life Science and Engineering building and graduate student housing, which Canterbury and Brighton Allston Improvement Association representative David Kelman said has made thorough review of the documents difficult.
‘Our plate is rather full,’ Canterbury. ‘It would have been a lot easier if BU had not let their last Master Plan lapse.’
But Carleton said pleasing everyone on the Task Force has been difficult. While some on the Task Force have called BU’s plans too detailed and lengthy, others have demanded more information about BU’s plans.
‘We have probably achieved the right mix that satisfies the needs of the community,’ he said.
The next step in the Master Plan process is a meeting open to community members on Jan. 30 in the School of Management. Carleton said the plan should be approved well before the end of the academic year.