By Johanna Kaiser, Town Correspondent
Boston University has unveiled its latest campus construction plans, proposing to build two new 11-story academic buildings, expand other academic buildings and renovate an existing dormitory.
The university aims to keep more students on campus and to improve its academic and research facilities with the construction. No timetable was set in the latest proposals, which were described to residents in a meeting Wednesday.
One proposed academic building would would replace a parking lot at the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Granby Street in the school’s central campus.
The other building to be used for science and engineering research would replace an existing building at 30-38 Cummington Street. Buildings at that location hug the Massachusetts Turnpike, but the school is in the process of turning Cummington Street into a pedestrian mall, allowing the proposed building to expand into the street.
The school also plans to build additions to its College of Communication and two brownstones at 130 Bay State Road.
These proposals and others were outlined Wednesday at a public task force meeting for its Institutional Master Plan, a plan that outlines all possible projects for the next 10 years. Large institutions are required by the city to draft such plans that must be approved through a public process.
In an attempt to make dormitory life more appealing to students, the school also plans to fully renovate and modernize its Myles Standish dormitories. School officials said the building would be closed during the project and the changes would result in fewer rooms.
It’s a change school officials hope will create more appealing dorms to encourage more upperclassmen to live on-campus instead of moving out into surrounding neighborhoods, where residents have complained of loud parties, rent hikes, and a loss of property value.
The school also plans to build a third dormitory between the school’s recently completed high rise dorms on Buick Street and Harry Agganis Way. This 11-story dorm was previously approved and will hold up to 523 students.
"We have captured them back with the towers," Robert Donahue, the school's associate vice president for government and community affairs, said. "People tend to leave as upperclassmen," he said. Currently, 77 percent of students live on campus.
Although there is no set timeline for any of the proposed projects, the school said it would complete the third Student Village dorm before it closed Myles Standish for construction to ensure students could live on campus.
The two projects would create a net gain of about 400 to 500 beds. Colin Riley, a spokesman for BU, said the school does not plan to increase enrollment.
