Boston University’s proposed new $80 million Life Science and Engineering Building will be a breeding ground for the ‘exciting’ new field of bioinformatics the use of computers to study the molecular biology and physics of the cell, Director of Space Management Paul Rinaldi told the BU Community Task Force last night.
The proposed building is part of the university’s third Institutional Master Plan, which, once completed, will outline BU’s aspirations for developing its properties over the next 10 years. The task force’s job is to supply community input before the university submits the plan to the Boston Redevelopment Authority for final approval.
According to Rinaldi, 35 BU scientists will use the new research space to study a wide range of biological, chemical and engineering phenomena ranging from what causes cells to mutate to ‘improving pharmaceuticals in ways that they are not so disruptive to the human body.’
‘The site is quite important because it fills a particular vacancy in the string of science activity [on campus],’ Rinaldi said of the 190,000 square feet of research, lab and classroom space sited on top of the former Nickelodeon Theater on Cummington Street, across Blandford Street from the Metcalf Science Center.
According to the architects from Cannon Design, the building will be roughly the same height as the Photonics Center but a full 100,000 square feet smaller in length and width in order to squeeze onto the footprint of the original building.
‘This is a small site for a laboratory building,’ said Cannon Associate Robert Peterson. ‘This is pretty much the limit to what we can do.’
Peterson said the ‘fundamental dilemma’ facing the university is a crunch for space, which is why the proposed building does not include the two neighboring buildings that currently house other BU operations.
Because of the age of the neighboring structures, Peterson said building on top of them would be a logistical and cost nightmare because their foundations would need to be reinforced. However, the new building’s plan includes an option for a second-story deck that could extend out over the Massachusetts Turnpike if more space were needed. However, this deck is not part of the project currently under review by the task force and the BRA.
Peterson called the building ‘extremely important to the science community at Boston University’ because it will ‘further encourage innovations in research.’ BU is currently receiving more than $30 million in federal research grants, Rinaldi said.
‘If the average BU student is an undergrad in the sciences, having these kinds of facilities allows us to recruit excellent faculty who in turn teach the average undergraduate student,’ Rinaldi said. ‘[This building] is a coming together of the key disciplines that’s really exciting; it’s a cornerstone for what’s happening in the sciences, not just in the world but in Massachusetts.’
One thing the new building will not do is project light into the surrounding area at night like the Photonics Center does, according to the architects.
‘One of the objections of people in my neighborhood in Brookline with the Photonics building was all the light that comes out of there at night,’ said task force member Robert Canterbuery, who represents the Audubon Circle Neighborhood Association. ‘I’m hoping that the lights will not be coming out of this building all night like a beacon.’
Peterson said the only night-lights on the building would point toward the building itself.
Pending task force and BRA approval, demolition of the Nickelodeon could start as soon as March with the anticipated 22 months of construction ‘to begin soon thereafter,’ Peterson said.
Representatives of Trammell Crow Company also presented to the task force detailed floor plans and elevations for the proposed graduate student apartments at 580 Commonwealth Ave. The current structure, a vacant apartment building on two lots next to the Kenmore Towers is ‘in structural disrepair’ and will be demolished pending approval to make way for 220 new one-bedroom and studio apartments for graduate students, according to Trammell Crow Associate Mark Clayton.
The roughly 115-foot tall building will feature a public café that will open up onto the courtyard in front of the Metcalf building, Clayton said.
Although the building will not have any residence assistants, Senior Vice President Richard Towle assuaged community concerns that the building would be out of control, citing the peaceful atmosphere at BU’s other graduate housing across town near the medical center.
‘[The students are] still subject to the student code of conduct, but at [the other graduate apartments] there are 250 graduate students and it’s quiet as a church in there,’ Towle said.
Towle also diffused concern that the university might try to convert the apartments into a hotel at some point in the future.
‘That would be perfect for conversion to a hotel; I hope that’s not something that’s been in the back of your mind,’ said Cottage Farm Neighborhood Association representative Archie Mazmanian, citing BU’s history of converting hotels such as Myles Standish Hall and the Howard Johnson into dormitories.
Mazmanian said his concerns related to larger zoning issues addressed in the tentative master plan, which asks for the rezoning of the BU campus east of the BU Bridge. However, Vice President Towle and BRA Project Manager John O’Brien said the zoning dispensations granted the university by the zoning board were specific to graduate housing and would have to be amended for any other use.
According to lead consultant Robert Kenney, the tentative master plan includes 14 potential projects, many of which were covered in the last plan, which dates back to 1997 and expires this fall.
‘The overall goal of the master plan is to complete the projects we’ve talked about, improve the visual character of the university and create more housing,’ said Kenney, who has worked on all of BU’s master plans since the first one in 1986. ‘We try to include everything, even though it’s down the road a bit,’ he said.
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