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Northeastern continues moves across Mass. Ave., buys Horticulture Hall

Northeastern University reports it's bought Horticulture Hall on the side of Massachusetts Avenue across from the bulk of its campus.

Suffolk County Registry of Deeds records show the purchase price was $22 million.

Northeastern already has offices in Belvidere Place, the Christian Science Center building that looks like the Christian Science office tower on its side on Huntington Avenue.

In the short run, Northeastern will use space in the building - including space Boston Magazine will be vacating this summer - for offices. In the long term, the school says it's working with the city on "a plan that takes advantage of the rich history and architecture of the building to program it with all the exciting things that happen at Northeastern."

Northeastern's moves across Mass. Ave. bring it that much closer to Berklee College of Music and could eventually set up another spot in Boston where two schools run right up to each other. Harvard and BU already meet in Allston, along the former train yard that Harvard now owns, while Suffolk University and Emerson College meet on Washington Street in Downtown Crossing.

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Comments

I live near this building and I think it's beautiful. Not sure how I feel about Northeastern owning the building.

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Has enough been in the Adams Courthouse or Boston City Hall recently? NEU firms destroyed both buildings.

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So I've always known that building as Horticultural Hall, not Horticulture Hall. Anyone know if Northeastern made a boo-boo or if the name was changed or...?

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It's called Beacon Park Yard.
Named after a horse trotting park.

Not the "former train yard that Harvard now owns" or FTYTHNO.

Although maybe that will become an acronym thing.

TGIF!

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At the intersection of Huntington Ave. and Longwood Ave., you have the Harvard Medical Area Campus (Med School, Dental School, Public Health), what used to be called Mass. College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, and Mass. College of Art and Design. Wentworth is across Huntington just east of Longwood.

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... I see no online evidence that the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has changed its name (and just passed it the other day -- and that's what its sign still says). ;-)

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They must have listened those who objected to it. For the past few years it called itself MCPHS University (I work in the area and pass it frequently). I shared a Lyft recently with an alumna who occasionally teaches there and she bemoaned the rebranding and said she refused to use it. I know that I checked their website sometime in the past few years and it indeed said MCPHS University and didn't say "MA College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences" virtually anywhere.

The Wikipedia article says "To reflect... the diversity of programs it offers while preserving its acronym “MCPHS,” the institution legally changed its name to MCPHS University in the spring of 2013."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MCPHS_University

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The terms tend to be used interchangeably, but they offer different levels of education. In general, only Universities offer Doctorate and Post-Doctorate programs.

That’s why Boston College is technically Boston College University!

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Many schools have started rebranding themselves as universities to make it clearer to people from overseas countries where "college" implies a lesser level school. That's why places like Bentley switch from college to university without changing their offerings. Meanwhile, others such as Bryn Mawr College don't change their names despite meeting criteria for being a university (which also requires having a separate administrative unit/school for the graduate degrees. There's a good discussion of the blurriness of the difference at
https://www.collegerank.net/difference-college-university/

BTW, I don't see anything online saying that BC's name is technically BC University. The official name is BC, despite the fact that it is classified as an R1 Research University.

At any rate, MCPHS could have rebranded itself as Mass. University of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, which would have made much more sense than using MCPHS Univ. with no explanation of the acronym (which is what they were doing for a few years).

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I miss Sparr's!

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There are sometimes circumstances where state law defines "college" or "university", and changes in the law gave opportunities to colleges to rebrand a bit as universities. I know that happened in NJ, forget if it was the case in MA.

So far as Mass Pharmacy or BC... part of it involves schools (and/or their students and alums) having good name recognition, good brand, and see no need to change. Also that they're secure in their name and identity.
Insecurity can be a little pathetic. A few years ago, WPI had a president who consciously avoided saying "Institute" and kept talking about "the University" and changing signs & logos & letterhead to have just WPI but not the full words spelled out, like people didn't know Worcester Polytechnic Institute was a university (you know, with Bachelor's degrees and Master's degree programs and Doctorate programs) and would somehow confuse us with Apex Tech's welder training program. Also apparently thinking we needed to sound like all the other schools (newsflash, Chief - we are different (we are better) and we like it that way). The nonsense went on for a year or two - people just kept saying "Institute" and "Worcester Tech" (and never saying "University") and I think it eventually sank in at Jeppson House.

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