New dormitories, academic facilities and a fieldhouse would be built on Wentworth Institute of Technology’s campus under updated plans for the school’s ongoing transformation of its 31-acre campus.
The building projects would enable all first-year students to live on campus, Wentworth administrators said in an announcement as they began the public review with the Boston Planning & Development Agency.
The building projects are part of the school’s strategy to modernize the campus and emphasize STEAM careers with a tech focus, Wentworth officials said. At the same time, they will replace outdated dorms and improve the residential experience.
Slightly over half of the school’s students live on campus, Wentworth said previously, and the projects will reduce the off-campus presence in the surrounding Mission Hill and Fenway neighborhoods.
The updated institutional master plan includes six building projects:
- A new eight-story, 111,000-square-foot field house and 217-bed residence hall;
- A 267,000-square-foot, 672-bed dorm facing Huntington Avenue;
- A 13-story, 522-bed dorm at 630 Huntington Ave., replacing Baker Hall;
- A 5-story academic building in the West Quad to house the School of Architecture and Design;
- New North and South Halls for the Schools of Engineering and Management, replacing the Annex complex;
- Renovations to Wentworth Hall including a new 20,000-square-foot welcome center.
An earlier version of its master plan put out a year ago included descriptions of projects similar to the West Quad project, the 672-bed Huntington Avenue dorm and the Wentworth Hall renovations. The school is also partnering with developer The Fallon Co. on a pair of life science towers on the current site of its main sports field, which will move to empty lots just north of the MBTA’s Roxbury Crossing station on the Orange Line subway.
Wentworth officials were not immediately available for additional comment.