Word: boylston
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Those who have not been inside Boylston Hall since its renovation should take a few minutes to see how the building has changed. Not only does it have a whole new interior, but the classrooms and offices have been drastically rearranged. Halfway through its first semester of use, familiarity with Boylston has begun to replace its novelty, and on the whole, students and faculty seem to enjoy the new building. Everyone, however, seems to have a different opinion as to where the design succeeds and where it leaves something to be desired...
...insides of Boylston are, literally, as different as night and day. "It was really dark and cavernous-looking before," recalls Classic concentrator Joshua Mann '00. The dingy, poorly-lit hallways on the upper floors have been rearranged, and the rather grey ground floor has been redecorated. Bright colors and unfinished wood permeate every aspect of the new decor. Walls throughout the building sport colors ranging from light beige to olive green and burnt orange. Sunlight reaches nearly every room, and in addition to the lighting in classrooms and offices, lights along interior hallways even illuminate the ceiling. The study carrels...
...Marlies Mueller, Senior Preceptor in Romance Languages and Literatures, is much more enthusiastic about the auditorium and the prospect of being closer to her students. "The old auditorium was not good for people who liked to interact with students," she said. Dr. Mueller has been teaching in Boylston for over thirty years. Faculty members like Mueller, who have spent many years in Boylston, were aware of problems with the old building that probably escaped students' notice. "Not one of windows in the old building opened," she remarked. Although the architect was forbidden to alter Boylston's historic facade, many...
...their breath in the air!" Mueller recalls. The new, modern system is much easier to control and even provides teachers with thermostats for individual classrooms. Difficulties with this system, however, have persuaded university officials that classroom temperature control will soon be discontinued. Elizabeth Randall, project manager for the Boylston renovation, cites wide temperature fluxuations for prompting this step: "People crank up the heat and then forget to turn it down," she said...
These kinds of practical concerns are reminders that Boylston's renovation was meant to address academic functionality in addition to aesthetic improvements. The new building houses the departments of Linguistics and Comparative Literature in addition to Classics and Romance Languages. "I think the trend towards housing related departments together is a good idea," says Linguistics concentrator Becky Tinio '00, who is thrilled that her department finally left its temporary home on Dunster Street. In the basement, Comparative Literature displaced the language lab and the media production center, both of which are now less convenient to the departments in Boylston Hall...