Take a Virtual Tour of BU’s New Fenway Campus
Peek inside residence halls, a theater, a mansion, and more in hyperlapse video
The newest building on BU’s Fenway Campus serves as its communal heart. Two stories of glass front the Fenway Campus Center at 150 Riverway, which houses the campus dining hall and common student space as well as student residences.
The floor-to-ceiling windows give diners a bird’s-eye view of the Muddy River while brightening the interior with natural light. (Any BU student can eat at the dining hall.) Coupled with its aluminum paneling, 150 Riverway stands out from the traditional brick buildings that dominate the five-acre campus, acquired when BU merged with Wheelock College in June, creating the BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development (which is at 2 Silber Way on the Charles River Campus).
Our video tour displays the mix of new and old on the Fenway Campus. Many aging structures have been given recent face-lifts, like the 134-bed Peabody Hall, built in 1910, which received a “comprehensive cosmetic upgrade” this past summer, says campus facilities director Edward Jacques. The building has been converted into graduate student housing. Undergraduate digs in Pilgrim House, built in the second decade of the 20th century, underwent minor cosmetic improvements during the summer, Jacques says.
All told, four residence halls—Peabody, Pilgrim, the Campus Center, and Riverway House—are home to 445 students.
On the newer (if not new) side of the campus’ stock of structures, the half-century-old 180 Riverway building houses faculty offices, classrooms, and the highly regarded 623-seat Wheelock Family Theatre, which since 1981 has offered professional and family-oriented stage shows, theater classes, and workshops.
The oldest Fenway Campus building wasn’t intended for academic purposes when it was built in 1902: 43 Hawes Street in Brookline was designed in the Classic Revival style, with a stately red brick and limestone exterior, as the residence of George H. Wightman. Amid high ceilings and elaborate moldings, students now attend classes and events there. It also has offices and student study areas.
Aaron Hwang can be reached at aahwang@bu.edu. Alan Wong can be reached at alanwong@bu.edu.
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