Initial approval given for high-rise dorms

The university has cleared a key step in its plan to build two new residence halls to house 1,800 students.

To allow for the construction of the dorms, as well as some nonresidential development, the Boston Rede­v­el­­­op­ment Authority (BRA) has approved changes to the North­­eastern master plan. The university is currently working under a ten-year master plan that lays out development proposals through the year 2010.

The BRA vote came after a hearing that featured supportive comments from many university-area residents and public officials.

Northeastern officials hope that final approval for the master plan modifications will be granted this spring, and that construction on the first of the residence halls—a 1,200-bed complex at the corner of Tremont and Ruggles Streets—will begin shortly thereafter.

This dorm will feature apartments for freshman honors students. The building will consist of two towers, one nineteen stories high and the other twenty-three stories, connected by a twelve-story section. It will also include a dining hall, ground-floor retail space, and 30,000 square feet of office space, to house administrative staff currently located in Cullinane Hall.

The second dorm, which will be located on the Cullinane site, is slated to be built after the completion of the first one, in 2009. That structure will be twenty-two stories high and will house 600 students.

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