John Hancock Student Village
Encyclopedia
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, covering 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) between Buick Street and Nickerson Field
Nickerson Field
Nickerson Field is a stadium on the site of Braves Field, in Boston, Massachusetts, the former home of the National League Boston Braves baseball team which is now located in Atlanta...
, ground formerly occupied by a National Guard
United States National Guard
The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...
Armory
Armory (military)
An armory or armoury is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...
, which had been used by the University primarily (but not exclusively) as a storage facility prior to its demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
and the start of construction. The Student Village was designed with the intention of fostering community
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
and bridging the divide between East and West campuses
West Campus
West Campus is an area in the westernmost part of Boston University's Charles River campus in Boston, Massachusetts. The area taken up by West Campus takes up most of the footprint of the former grandstand of Braves Field, whose right field pavilion grandstand is currently used as the primary...
.
The dormitory of apartment suites at 10 Buick Street (often abbreviated to "StuVi" by students) opened to juniors and seniors in the fall of 2000. In 2002, John Hancock Insurance
John Hancock Insurance
John Hancock Financial is a loose term for a United States insurance company which existed, in various forms, from its founding on April 21, 1862, until its acquisition in 2004 by the Canadian insurance company Manulife Financial. It was named in honor of John Hancock, a prominent patriot...
announced its sponsorship of the multi-million dollar project. The Agganis Arena
Agganis Arena
Agganis Arena is a 7,200-seat multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, on the campus of Boston University. It is named after Harry Agganis, an outstanding football and baseball athlete for BU and the Boston Red Sox. He died at the age of 26, from a massive pulmonary embolism...
, named after Harry Agganis
Harry Agganis
Aristotle George Agganis ' , nicknamed "The Golden Greek", was an American athletic star in two sports. His family origins were from Longanikos near Sparta, Greece. -Career:...
, was opened to concerts and hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
games in January 2005. The 7200 seat arena replaced the smaller Walter Brown Arena
Walter Brown Arena
Walter Brown Arena is a 3,806-seat multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Boston University Terriers women's ice hockey team and hosted the men's team before they moved to Agganis Arena. It hosted the first rounds of the 2003 and 2004 America East Conference men's...
for Terrier hockey games and has also been used for concerts, shows, and events.
In March 2005 the final element of phase II of the Student Village complex, the Fitness and Recreation (FitRec) Center
Fitness and Recreation Center
The Boston University Fitness and Recreation Center is an athletic facility at Boston University. Built in 2004-2005 to replace the aging and inadequate Case Gym, the FitRec was built on the site of a National Guard Armory, to which there is a nod in the form of an informative plaque, found just...
, was opened, drawing large crowds from the student body. The center incorporates 6 racquetball
Racquetball
For other sports often called "paddleball", see Paddleball .Racquetball is a racquet sport played with a hollow rubber ball in an indoor or outdoor court...
and squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
courts, a competition pool, a recreational pool, two gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
nasia, a jogging track, a lazy river, and a 35 feet (10.7 m) rock climbing wall, among other sports-related areas.
A 26 and 19-story dorm tower which houses 960 students was finished in late 2009. The Boston Globe ran a cover-page article about it, describing it as "perhaps the most opulent residence hall to ever grace the local college landscape." The dorm and others like it have created somewhat of a controversy, with detractors saying it represents a step further of coddling the younger generation. BU’s president, Robert Brown, said the tower will allow the entirety of the 80% of 16,000 undergrads who want to live on campus to be able to do so. Because the school guarantees on-campus housing, freshmen were often shunted into nearby hotels, a practice long criticized by the student newspaper. Brown also said it assuages Town and gown
Town and gown
Town and gown are two distinct communities of a university town; "town" being the non-academic population and "gown" metonymically being the university community, especially in ancient seats of learning such as Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and St Andrews, although the term is also used to describe...
relations with local Allston residents in response to studentification.
Plans for Student Village III (StuVi3) are currently on hold as a result of the global economic recession of the late 2000s.