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Old Posted Dec 10, 2008, 3:48 AM
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News from the BU dorm-in-the-sky project

Quote:
StuVi 3 ‘years away’
Plans suffer with building freeze

Iris Picat

Published: Friday, December 5, 2008
Updated: Friday, December 5, 2008

While construction is set to finish in June 2009 on Student Village Phase II, the construction freeze has postponed plans for Phase III indeterminably, Boston University officials said.

StuVi2 is currently in the latest phase of a long-term plan going back to the mid-1980s, but officials have not conceived any preliminary plans for StuVi3, and do not intend to in the near future, Auxiliary Services Vice President Peter Cusato.

“New construction projects will be reprioritized and weighed against other needs all based on what economic indicia suggest,” he said.

In the best-case scenario, construction on StuVi3 is “years off,” though it cannot be determined at the moment, Cusato said.

“But I didn’t think I’d be here to see StuVi2. I could be wrong again,” he said. “We’ll have a better sense of what the next academic year will look like as spring draws nearer. Priorities will no doubt be refined at that time.”

However, Cusato said he is certain no plans or architectural designs have been made, and would take at least a year or two to develop.

BU would be more likely to prioritize renovating other student residences given the current economic climate before starting on StuVi3, BU spokesman Colin Riley said. Depending on how successful StuVi2 is, StuVi3 may get pushed along, however.

“It would be a follow-up on demand,” Riley said.

About 75 percent of the undergraduate population lives now in BU housing, but that could change with the new building.

“We could realistically make it go up to mid-’80s,” Cusato said. “We want to house as many people as would like to live here.”

The freeze does not affect any projects that were already under construction, but it does halt future projects, Riley said.

“Nothing has been delayed, because [we were] not planning on starting anything in the fall,” he said. “No contracts have been cut out.”

Cusato said he thinks the public is overreacting to the freeze.

“A couple months ago when BU announced the freeze, it made the front page of The Boston Globe,” he said. “Since then, virtually every institution has done the same thing. “People are panicking needlessly over the freeze, [and] paranoia sets in,” he said. “Send everyone home, fire all staff, jump in the river.”

StuVi2 is currently set to accommodate 960 students, according to the BU website.

“Our goal is to have it open for students next academic year,” Campus Planning and Construction Assistant Vice President Michael Hathaway said. “We have 158 people on the project, and it is the best-run job. It is on budget and on schedule.”


Alex Wolnetz
Though the second phase the Student Village remains fully funded and is set to open on schedule next fall, plans for Student Village III could be delayed with the new construction freeze.
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