Image courtesy of Ennead Architects, Jacobs and Studio Enée
Wentworth Institute of Technology’s partnership with private developers would bring a major life science expansion in Mission Hill and opportunities for student internships at a 640,000-square-foot lab complex along Huntington Avenue.
The project would add The Fallon Co.’s entrepreneurship training programs for local minority youth. In 2021, Fallon Co. and minority entrepreneurship firm Street2Ivy sponsored a summer program at Wentworth that provided real estate investment and career advice for 18 students from underserved communities.
The project, proposed for 3-acre site at 500 Huntington Ave., includes a two-building lab complex replacing an athletic field and small accessory buildings.
At 267- and 280-foot heights, the two lab buildings conform to the site’s planned development area zoning limits, the document states.
The Fallon Co. is partnering with a pair of local Black-owned businesses on the project. The Wentworth project team will include a 50 percent minority ownership share, developers said.
Waldwin Group CEO Clayton Turnbull participated in the guest lecture segment of the summer program in 2021 and owns and operates Dunkin’ Donuts franchises. The Owens Co. specializes in commercial moving and warehousing.
The Fallon Co. and Street2Ivy also will incorporate the Wentworth project into a “living lab” for the entrepreneurship program, according to a project notification form submitted to the Boston Planning & Development Agency.
The project also will create an on-campus site for Wentworth’s cooperative learning program, with more than 100 students expected to work on the 500 Huntington planning and construction, The Fallon Co. said.
In August, Mayor Michelle Wu and the BPDA began requiring private developers to disclose their diversity, equity and inclusion strategies such as women- and minority-owned businesses that are part of the project team.
The administration also asked developers to increase diversity of suppliers and workplace training programs as part of the new policy, which is required on an informational basis rather than including specific targets.
Wentworth is planning to raise the profile of its 31-acre campus on the Fenway-Mission Hill border with additional new development over the next decade.
The engineering school plans four additional building projects over the next decade, including a 23-story dorm and a new 120,000-square-foot academic building, according to an institutional master plan submitted this month.
