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BC plans to limit how far students in Comm. Ave. building can open windows
By adamg on Mon, 12/29/2014 - 11:37am
Boston College says it's doing its part to minimize the impact of students in the 17-story apartment building it bought on Comm. Ave. in part by installing locks that will keep students from opening windows more than six inches - and which will make apartment balconies completely off limits to them.
In a filing with the BRA, BC says the changes at 2000 Comm. Ave. will let students get some fresh air, but limit the amount of noise that'll emanate from the building. A resident director and a resident minister will also live in the building and will further keep things from getting out of hand.
The college plans to house 540 students in the 17-story building, as part of its plan to offer housing to all of its undergraduates. BC says the building, when coupled with a new dorm under construction on the actual campus will let 96% of BC students live in college housing.
In addition to the changes to the windows and balconies - both of which will be unlocked during the summer for use by participants in other college programs - BC plans to remove the building's pool and gym.
The college needs the BRA's approval for the changes.
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Comments
OMG
there's NOISE coming out of an apartment building in a CITY. So let's force a university to WASTE MONEY on a totally ludicrious plan to limit how wide windows can be opened.
And the best part of this silliness is that the BRA has to approve all this nonsense - even though they have NOTHING to do with the FUCNTION of the buliding.
Here's a better idea - tell the people focing this nonsense to get a friggin' life.
Be a little more reactionary
Be a little more reactionary next time....
IIRC, the windows in the BC dorms only open a little bit as well so this would be consistent with that. I'm gonna assume BU isn't letting undergrads in Warren Towers open their windows wide either. Putting aside the noise, there are obvious liability issues here on why BC would want to prevent undergrads from hanging out open windows.
OK, so it's standard BC
procedure to make these changes in buildings they own. Perhaps then we can lose the "we're doing something to minimize the (non existent) impacts on the neighborhood" BS.
And you still haven't answered the quetion of why the BRA even needs to get involved here.
Oooh, oooh, ask me! Ask me!
Or just look at the response below.
Only things in the zoning code can be changed "as of right." BC is changing use- yes it is going from residences to residences, but the scope of the residences is changing- so they need the BRA to sign off.
This ain't China. You can't just build something. BC is being cool about this. Why can't you?
And you still haven't
That "quetion" was actually not asked in the comment I responded to but either way, read other comments on this thread and then google "BRA Institutional Master Plan." Happy hunting.
Windows
I was under the impression that universities were trending towards fixed window openings in high-rise buildings after a series of jumping suicides at NYU.
This was an issue at BU back
This was an issue at BU back when I was in school. I lived in Warren (C-tower, 15th floor) for a while in the late 80s and remember the windows not opening much, though we could open them. Kitty corner from my dorm was the one known as "The Towers." I'm assuming that that residence didn't have fixed windows at that time, as I do remember a jumper in the Spring of my freshman year. Have no recollection of what they did at Shelton, which is a pretty tall building. (Am assuming that the West Campus monstrosities had windows similar to those in Warren).
Jumping suicides are bad.
Jumping suicides are bad. Plain old dumb stunts like leaving a flowerpot on the windowsill and ooooops are potentially just as bad (from 17 stories? you bet) and much more frequent. And Boston is full of students who have repeatedly demonstrated that they can't be trusted not to be stupid with balconies (usually involving overloading or fire or flung objects or all of the above).
Bunk Beds of Death
Bunk beds are not typical furniture in high rise apartments, but they are quite common in dormitory environments.
There have been a number of deaths when a student has rolled off the top bunk and fallen out through an open window.
Some examples here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/0...
A google search says otherwise
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS510...
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/04/17/colleges-consider-why-stu...
This is a surprisingly serious problem.
Surprising.
Please don't get angry at me or anything, but, why do you qualify this as "surprising?"
(Cringing.)
Trends tell us that young people do rash things. (Again, I am sorry.)
Predictable, perhaps
But I was surprised by how very common it is - and I'm sure the naysayers up thread would be quite surprised.
Human Sexual Response has a song about it from the early 80s, so it is an old problem:
Well
Boston College is making substantial changes to the interior of the building and essentially changing the use from apartments to dormitories, so yes, the City, in the guise of the BRA, has oversight.
Boston College is seemingly being a good neighbor by making these changes. Thankfully, your time as a Jesuit scholastic was brief, if at all.
Installing locks that will limit amount that students can open
windows is a good idea, but mainly for safety and security reasons, especially for those who live on the lower two floors of dorms and/or apartment buildings.
When I attended B. U. as a grad student, I had vent locks installed in my apartment windows so that I could open up my windows at least 6 inches, not only to let some fresh air in, but to reduce the chance of an intruder getting into my apartment, either when I wasn't home, or if I was at home, sleeping at night, particularly since I lived in an apartment that had a fire escape directly near my windows.
When I finished school at B. U., and moved into a rent-controlled apartment in Cambridge (where I lived for 7 years before I moved into my present residence.), I purchased vent locks for my windows and installed them myself, so that my windows could only be opened 6", for fresh air, and for security reasons, especially since I lived on the first floor, although not quite at street level.
Having said all of the above, I don't believe that noise has anything to do with it, especially because noise could still be heard, despite having vent locks on the windows.
Safety is the big issue, imho.
Vent Locks
I didn't know that you could purchase these and install them yourself. Am going to bring this up to the housemate / landlord, because the first floor doesn't have anything but the standard lock at the top of the windows. Over the Summer we had an attempted break in, in broad daylight, because the back porch window was open to catch a breeze. Housemate responded by shutting the window while the guy was trying to get in and then calling 911.
Thank you for mentioning this!
You're welcome By be.
This was way back in the late 1970's through the 1980's, when windows were built somewhat differently, making it easy to buy vent locks to install by oneself. They were easy to install, and, at least in part because the superintendents watched the building closely where I lived after finishing up at B. U. (I attended from the fall of 1977 through the spring of 1981, to be exact.), I obtained and lived in a Cambridge rent-controlled apartment for seven years, before moving into my present residence, which I own outright.
The place I resided in was an old building (the first landlord had bought this building in Cambridge where I lived, 30 years before I'd moved in, back in the early 1950's), and the windows were built differently back then-both the window frames and windows themselves were made of wood and easier to pry open than many, if not most of the windows that're being constructed nowadays, whose frames are made of metal. Many doors and door jambs these days are also made of metal, therefore making them much more difficult to jimmy open, as well.
Anyway, given all that info, I'm not sure that vent locks are even available, let alone needed any longer, due to chanes in construction of many doors and windows, but you could find out. Hope I've been of some help here.
If you have double-hung windows
You can make the windows lock at a fixed opening by putting a big nail in a hole drilled through the lower sash and into (but not through) the upper sash. If you use a double-headed nail (like this one) and make the hole just a little bigger, it's easy to pull out the nail. Cut the point off the nail, leaving enough length that the nail goes all the way into the hole in the upper sash, and drill the hole at least a half-inch away from the glass.
Your landlord may not approve, but if it's done neatly, probably won't notice.
why not install these?
Window guards
I'm all for
noise reduction but isn't it a safety hazard if someone can't fully open their windows, especially to escape in case of fire?
How can you escape from a
How can you escape from a fire if you open your window and are 17 floors above the street with no way of getting down?
How far up
do fire truck ladders go?
Not 17 floors or anything
Not 17 floors or anything close to it.
"never live above..."
my dad used to always say "never live above the 3rd floor because we can't get to you on a ladder". Don't know if that's changed in more recent years.
fire ladders
When I was in college (many moons ago) I lived on the top/11th floor of my dorm. During dorm orientation; we were advised that the ladders on the fire trucks would only reach the 7th floor.
At the time; the legal drinking age was 18. There were constant parties that would inevitably set off the fire alarm. My roommate and I grew to hear the 'click' of the fire alarm before it actually sounded. We developed a strategy of leaving our sneakers on the floor next to the bed and jeans & a sweatshirt/jacket on the back of a chair. With that little click; we were up, grabbed car/dorm keys, and threw our clothes on before running down the 11 double flights of stairs. More often than not we were the first out of the building. (We also quickly realized waiting for the elevator in a bldg of 400 students to take us back to the top floor would take forever. We just walked back up the stairwell to our room. Just the thought of climbing all those stairs makes me winded!)
To the Rescue
Drone elevators
Balconies
They specifically say they're limiting access to the balconies. During a fire, you could get outside, close the window, and wait for rescue.
Right
It sounds like they aren't removing the balconies. They have sliding glass doors out to them, which I assume they're going to bolt shut or something. So you could break the window and get out to fresh air. Or they may just lock them with alarms or something, like fire doors. I'm guessing they've thought about that.
...and wait...and wait...and
...and wait...and wait...and wait...
Seriously, how is someone going to get to you on a balcony? And how long is it going to take? And what's the fire doing in the meanwhile, patiently waiting in the foyer?
Didn't you have any toys as a kid?
Fire engines have this fancy technology called ladders.
If the stairs/hallway are already engulfed in flame, you need another means of egress.
Did you read the earlier part of the thread?
Ladders are limited to a few stories.
Better than nothing
Still useful for the first 110 feet, plus whatever they can get to by adding extension ladders.
Nowadays, however,
many apartment buildings, including the one I presently reside in, have sprinkler systems installed in then. It's true that another means of egress is necessary if the stairwells/hallways are engulfed with flames and/or smoke, but I believe that a number of developers are now taking this into account. I know our building has an egress that goes up to the roof of our building, in the event that the stairwells are engulfed with flames/smoke.
I think that many, if not most dorms/apartment buildings these
days have a panel inside the front vestibule, on the first floor, that tells the fire department exactly which floors and/or apartment(s) that the fire is coming from, so they can get up there quickly. Also, firetrucks, especially in urban areas carry what are called the hook-n-ladder, in which the firefighter can hook the ladder to the windowsill, climb up to the apartment, break the window, if necessary, and, if the person's too scared to negociate the ladder by him/herself, to help them down the ladder to the street.
Hope I've been of some help here.
Nahhh, not in this case.
Imagine that there were no balconies there. If you are on the 30th floor of the John Hancock tower, your windows certainly don't open (anymore), even if there is a fire.
If I was a neighbor, I'd be plenty happy that undergrads were not allowed to hang out on their balconies all day and night. This is a weird solution, but a lot cheaper than removing all those balconies.
If window guards or vent locks are installed, the vent locks or
window guards could be slid aside temporarily, in order to open the windows for escape.
Windows
The windows do not open in the Hancock a Tower, Prudential and numerous other buildings in this country.
If the BRA doesn't approve
then the students who already live off campus (because they only get three years of campus housing) will continue to live off campus in crappy apartments that don't have such window locks.
True
That's why BC came up with this plan. It's a win for them and the city.
I'm a BU grad. Why can't you Eagles applaud your school for having the ability to house 96% of undergrads. When I was that age, you were lucky to get 3 years housing (at BC. BU was begging students to live on campus)
Just when I thought
This city couldn't POSSIBLY regulate anything else.
There are 432 licensed open windows in the city
But you have to buy a medallion to get one - it costs (place pinky near edge of lips), ONE BILLION DOLLARS!
This post kind of buries the
This post kind of buries the lead, imo. The issue isn't the windows opening, the document itself states this is standard procedure in all BC residential halls (p. 65) and one can see why they would do this for noise and safety. The real story is that once undergraduates are living in this building, that BC will finally have guaranteed housing for full-time undergrads for all 4 years. This is what Boston and Newton have been asking for. Another commenter mentioned that right now most BC juniors live off-campus since it's not a guaranteed year of housing there. It should open up a significant amount of housing in the immediate vicinity as students (i.e. their parents footing the bill) elect to stay in campus housing and not gobble up the (usually sketchy) apartments on surrounding streets.
Wow!
Wow! Interesting history on that building. Half it collapsed when it was being built.
http://www.controlled-demolition.com/2000-commonwealth-avenue
http://matdl.org/failurecases/Building_Collapse_Cases/2000_Commonwealth
It was a very , very cold
It was a very , very cold time to be pouring concrete.
the constrution fo the whole building was a scam
Just one big favor by the city council to Rapaport
How many BC
students does it take to open a window?
It's curious that they are
It's curious that they are doing this under the guise of noise control. A window opened 2" or 2' will let an almost equal amount of sound out.
The idea that limiting how far windows can be opened is
a form of noise control is a lot of malarkey. The only reason to be able to limit how far a window can be opened is for safety and security(i. e., to reduce the chance of an intruder getting into one's apartment), or to be able to open the window far enough to escape a fire, if the need be.