The Boston Planning and Development Agency’s board has approved Boston University’s real estate plan for its Charles River campus through 2026.
The changes to Warren Towers, BU’s signature dormitories, include improved bathrooms and HVAC systems and repairs to the building envelope. The board also okayed a large lab complex on Wentworth Institute of Technology property a month after tabling the proposal, along with two office-to-housing conversions and Jones Street Investment Partners’ 236-unit apartment building behind the convention center in South Boston.
The BU approval is for the school’s institutional master plan, the Business Journal reported. The plans typically cover 10 years, but the university sought a stopgap version in order to give new BU President Mellisa Gilliam time to help determine her vision for the campus.
Boston’s Planning Department was established by Mayor Wu in 2024 to restore planning as a core function of City government and to shape growth that serves Boston’s residents and centers their needs. Our mission is to address our City’s greatest challenges: resilience, affordability, and equity; we take real estate actions and prioritize planning, development, and urban design solutions that further these priorities. We seek to build trust with communities through transparent processes that embrace predictable growth.
The Planning Department’s purpose is to: develop comprehensive short and long term plans for Boston’s built environment, establish a consistent and predictable zoning code for the city, advance exceptional and inclusive design standards, provide predictability to guide development that is responsive to community needs, and plan for the effective use of public real estate.
