By William Hinkle
BEACON HILL -- As music blares, drunken college students stumble out of keg parties. During the day, students flood the streets, going to classes, yakking on cellphones, jaywalking through the neighborhood.
On Beacon Hill, tensions are high between residents and students, making Suffolk University's proposed master plan for campus development a controversial issue.
As part of their master plan, Suffolk University is planning to raze the current structure at 20 Somerset St. and replace it with a facility to house the university's New England School of Art and Design. the project is under review by the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
University officials expect student presence on Beacon Hill to decrease, because the new building will allow the university to close classrooms on Temple and Derne streets, said Gordon B. King, Suffolk University's senior director of facilities planning and management. University officials estimate an average decrease of 786 students per day in the area and predict 364 fewer class meeting hours per week.
In February, the Beacon Hill Civic association voted to oppose the project, because of doubts that the project will have minimal, if any, effect on student presence.
When the classrooms in the Fenton Building on Derne Street close, the university plans to convert the old classrooms into faculty offices and space for other non-classroom uses.
Gerald Autler, senior project manager for the authority, said the authority reviews the institution's master plan, then the structure and design of the building, only after the master plan is approved. The project is at the stage when the authority reviews the master plan.
"What we are looking for is how this project will enhance the area around it," Autler said. "It has to be a balancing act between helping an institution [Suffolk University], who is an important source of vitality, and recognizing the impact the building's presence will have on surrounding areas.
Suffolk University officials would not say the project will decrease the overall student presence on Beacon Hill; instead, they said student presence would decrease only in specific areas such as Temple Street. Temple Street is small, narrow and residential, so diverting students to Somerset Street may change the appearance of the student presence in residential areas, Autler said.
Without a natural, continuous campus to expand onto and no land of its own, the university is limited when it comes to campus development. It owns many of its own buildings, but the buildings are part of an established neighborhood, giving the community a large stake in whether the authority approves the art school.
The project remains in a public comment period. Among letters from the public received by the authority, Autler said, is a letter of opposition from the Beacon Hill Civic Association and letters of support from businesses such as Capitol Coffee House on Bowdoin Street.