Renovations to Warren Towers will begin to take place over the upcoming winter break, with the project expected to be completed by 2028.
Students will continue to live in Warren Towers during renovations. The three towers will be renovated one-at-a-time, with residing students being relocated to housing in Fenway Campus during the renovation of their tower and relocated after its completion. After all three towers are completed, a fourth phase will begin to renovate the streetscape.
These renovations will include improvements to the outside envelope, internal systems, elevators, escalators and bathrooms.
BU Spokesperson Colin Riley said students will likely not experience disturbances to their heating or plumbing while renovations are occurring, but students will be notified if disturbances do occur.
Riley said the renovations are part of BU’s plan to continue creating new and better facilities for current and future students.
Some renovations, such as single-user, gender-neutral bathrooms and showers, also aim to make the dormitory more inclusive for students, according to the project’s proposal to the Boston Planning and Development Agency.
Some BU students were excited for the renovations slated for Warren Towers. Sophomore Naina Jobin said the improvements to the heating system would be beneficial.
“I feel like there are so many times where I come here and it’s like 90 degrees,” Jobin said. “The heating would be nice if they regulated that.”
Simran Anand, a sophomore and former resident of Warren Towers, said she thinks the University is “focusing on the wrong things” by making these renovations. She said her floor never experienced clogged toilets or poor shower pressure, for example.
“I don’t think heating or plumbing are the issues, unless it has to do with structural stuff or safety stuff that I don’t know about,” Anand said.
Martin Finn, a principal at Souza, True and Partners, the structural consulting firm for the project, said the firm does not foresee any extreme difficulties with the project, only small occasional problems.
“Part of the things that you run into is you expect a certain condition, and you get something that’s slightly different,” Finn said. “But it happens all the time, and it’s something that you kind of are prepared to have flexibility in your design.”
Along with this, Finn said the reason for the project’s three-year expected duration is due to the plan for students to continue living at Warren Towers during the renovation process.
“In a perfect world, you can completely shut down the building for however long it takes and do all the work,” Finn said. “BU can’t afford to lose one of its big dorms for that long, so it’s always a little bit of a juggling act.”
