Jennison Hall
Boston – Bentley University students, faculty, and administrators celebrated the reopening of Jennison Hall following a fast-track, $22.5 million laboratory and classroom renovation and expansion designed by Boston-based ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge, whose design provides a diverse mix of new learning, social, lab, and office spaces.
Built in 1966, Jennison Hall, with its 33 classrooms, is the largest teaching facility on the university’s Waltham campus.
The original plan was to design and build out the 85,000sf project in phases. To save the university the time, cost, and disruption of an ongoing construction project spanning several years, the team developed a creative alternative strategy to complete the construction in less than seven months. This was accomplished by taking the entire building out of service last summer and fall, relocating classes throughout the campus, and using a fast-track approach. The renovation was completed in time for the January start of spring semester.
Consigli Construction Company is the construction manager, and CSL Consulting is the owner’s project manager.
The transformed interiors feature transparency and flexibility, with glass walls and daylit rooms that place science investigation and teaching on display. To fulfill the goal of integrating science into a business curriculum, the new layout at Jennison Hall locates three new, multidisciplinary science instructional labs for chemistry, physics, biology, and Earth and environmental sciences, providing a more collaborative and flexible teaching environment.
Adjoining the science labs is a new “dry” laboratory, modeled after Bentley University’s popular MBA Studio and called a collaboratory. The collaboratory provides a team-based, flexible learning environment to supplement the more traditional “wet” instructional labs. A variety of teaching spaces, including both active learning classrooms and tiered case study classrooms, occupy the remaining three floors of the building. Teaming areas, social interaction niches, and quiet study spaces throughout the building offer a variety of student experiences. Additionally, the Office of Academic Services for both undergraduate and graduate students was relocated to Jennison Hall.
