Boston – The BRA has approved Berklee College of Music’s Institutional master plan for developing three parcels along Mass. Ave. that will add 500,000sf of classroom, performance, administrative, student life, and dorm space for 800 students. The architect is William Rawn Associates Architects, Inc. of Boston. Construction for one of the projects will begin this fall.
The site, referred to as the Berklee Crossroads project, will see the most dramatic changes when it’s fully developed as a 24-story tower featuring a new, state-of-the-art performance center. The Crossroads was originally designed for 29 stories, but in a series of meetings over four years, neighbors asked that the college seek ways to lower the height, which was accomplished with the acquisition of the other properties.
The projects will also add housing for a total of 800 students contributing to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s request that colleges and universities move more students on campus to free rental apartments for neighborhood residents.
The first project to be constructed is 168 Massachusetts Avenue for a projected cost of $100 million. A building existing on the site now will be razed to create a 16-story, 155,000sf mixed-use building with floor-to-ceiling windows on the bottom floors illuminating student life and music for passersby. Construction is planned for the fall of this year with an opening for the 2013 fall semester.
The building will house new dorm rooms with approximately 370 beds, a two-story dining hall and student performance venue with seating for 400. A music technology center with recording studios will be developed below grade. Practice and ensemble rooms and student lounges will occupy the upper floors. Along the street will be retail space.