The Modern Theatre at Suffolk University will move forward with an interior renovation, while trying to maintain its façade on Washington Street. The theater will be fitted with a studio theater, art gallery and 5,200 sf of support space. The university is also planning to put a 12-story, 47,000-sf student residence hall above the theater, which will be connected to 10 West St., a 274-student residence hall that was opened in early January above a restaurant and coffee shop. Suffolk will also build a 112,800-sf academic building for the New England School of Art and Design. The structure will be built at 20 Somerset St. after the university razes the existing building, replacing it with classrooms, studios, laboratories, offices, and gallery and exhibit spaces--under one roof--strictly for academic use. Both the Modern Theatre and 20 Somerset St. projects are under the university's Institutional Master Plan which is being approved by the BRA Board. Estimated budgets could not be obtained for these redevelopments by deadline.

Simmons College is also expanding space with approval from the BRA Board. The college will add 5,898 sf to their dining hall for an estimated $6 million. The new space--at 300 Fenway--will provide the college an opportunity to renovate its existing kitchen and create capacity for a growing student population.

The BRA Board is taking another institutional master plan into consideration by approving The Cecil Group Inc. as a consultant for the Allston-Brighton Community Wide Plan. The CWP is specifically for the North Allston-Brighton neighborhood and intends to revamp the existing 2005 North Allston Strategic Framework for Planning, which provides information to help the BRA address and direct general real estate growth and development in the neighborhood. As developments progressed in the neighborhood, which includes the Harvard Institutional Master Plan and the Charles View Project--an interfaith low-income housing project--the community asked to review and re-evaluate the NASFP, which was finalized in 2005. The re-evaluation will make sure that the community of Allston-Brighton will have a clear "roadmap" and action plan, including a broad neighborhood context for Harvard's on-going master plan. The planning contract will be $250,000 and funded by the BRA with partial assistance by Harvard though a $100,000 planning study grant.