Project
From Commuters
to Leaders
Northeastern University
Boston, MA, USA
The Long View
on Longwood
Preparing to file its next institutional master plan with the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Simmons College needed a guide for its campus and facilities investments for the coming decade.
Located in Boston’s historic Fenway, separated into an academic campus and residential campus, Simmons College is a small, private four-year undergraduate women’s college with five co-ed graduate schools. For the college’s ten-year institutional master plan, NBBJ conducted a 14-month study that included programming, planning, conditions assessment and strategic concept design initiatives.
A significant theme in the master plan was a consideration of a variety of new on-campus student spaces for socializing, studying and recreation. Additional recommendations included improvements to the campus entrances, open spaces, the institutional identity, connections between buildings, accessibility, engineering systems and sustainability initiatives.
Proposed Expansions
As part of the institutional master plan, NBBJ helped Simmons College prioritize expansions to and renovations of existing buildings. Three major interventions were emphasized:
The Bartol Hall dining facility would be expanded with a new “glass box” student center that extends to the street to create a welcoming presence for Simmons’ residential campus.
Directly behind Bartol Hall sits Alumnae Hall, a popular venue for student events, where an open courtyard would be enclosed to create a new multi-function hall.
Faculty offices and dry labs would consolidate within the Park Science Building, and a new architectural “knuckle” at the corner would house new wet labs.
