Myles Standish Residents Voice Insecurities Regarding Construction and it’s Consequences

The west side of Myles Standish Hall— a place of residence for Boston University students since it was purchased by BU President Daniel L. Marsh in 1949— is currently under construction until its projected completion in 2018. This will be the last time students will have the privilege to walk the same halls as American legends, such as the famous Babe Ruth, and the beloved Martin Luther King Jr., who was a BU student and Myles resident after its renovations into a dormitory. For the second time since its assembly in 1929 , Myles Standish Hall is undergoing construction to modernize its exterior as well as its interior. Unfortunately, 85 years has weathered away the functionality of the historic building and as a result, the residence needs updating in order for it to continue to be livable by students. BU Housing has chosen to keep the east side of Myles Standish open for resident living, because it was the most efficient way to meet their construction deadline, while still being able to promise all BU students the option of on campus housing. Many students were excited to live in Myles during construction because it was offered with a 50% discount. However, the 350 students that are remaining in Myles Standish Hall during the construction have continued to express their attitudes toward the construction, which at times has conflicted with the quality of their stay. Lauren Rodulakis, a sophomore in the college of general studies, lives on the 9th floor of Myles Standish Hall. She was not told before choosing Myles as her place of residence that the 50% off deal would also include the lack of a printer. Nor was she told that her heat and water would be occasionally turned off. She would have liked to have been warned of these ramifications before she chose to live in Myles. “Right before they do it (turn the water/heat off), they should send out a mass email. When they warned the students about possible side effects (of construction), they used ‘construction’, as an over-arching word; it wasn’t too detailed.” Said Rodulakis.

Danielle Sternberg, a 7th floor resident of Myles and CGS student tells of a friend who moved out of her dorm in Myles because there was a blue tarp covering her only window which prevented any natural light from coming into her room. “I do not blame her for moving out of her dorm, because I know for a fact that she wasn’t notified that the tarp would be there. The construction shouldn’t interfere with the students that are living on the residential side of Myles,” said Sternberg. Julianna Fitzpatrick of the college of general studies, lives on the 7th floor in Myles Standish, and believes that a part of BU’s failure to communicate with the students of the repercussions that would occur as a result of construction was due to “negligence”. “I think they were not even thinking about it. At the same time, they should have looked into it, considering we are still paying to live here even though it’s half off. The only reason that they said it would be half off was just the noise and its now all these other things too,” said Fitzpatrick. Now that the residents know that their heat and water will periodically be turned off, they wonder how often they should expect it to happen. “Not often,” says Marc Robillard, Housing project sponsor for the Myles Standish Renovation Project. “We have to tie in the permanent power, the suer system, and the water system… the left side (of the building) will be occupied next fall. So we have to bring everything into that and we don’t want it to be temporary. We want it to be the permanent power, the permanent water, and the permanent suer system, so there will be some disruptions (on the right side) while we are doing that. But it won’t be long and it wont be often,” says Robillard. Another common concern shared by Myles residents is the dust and potentially harmful chemicals that are being released into the air during construction; the same air students are breathing in, since they are in such close proximity to the construction site. Anika Dhar, a sophomore in the College of General Studies, lived in Myles Standish Hall during the spring semester of 2016, but made the decision to move out for the 2016-2017 year, because the threat of the inhalation of dust and other chemicals has more extreme consequences to Anika than it does to most other students.

Anika was hospitalized during winter break of 2015, due to fluid that filled up in her lungs. Because of this, she is more susceptible to health problems if she is constantly breathing in dust. She now lives in Danielson Hall. “Due to the construction, I was told that it was safer for me if I wouldn’t live around it, even walking outside the building, there might have been dust that I could have inhaled, and that would have caused plural thickening in between my lungs,” says Dhar. However, Housing assures us that all dust and potentially harmful carcinogens are closely monitored and the air is tested under tight rules and regulations. “We’re testing every week with an independent testing company, and we’re testing for temperature, relative humidity, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide… we are testing for VOC which is volatile organic compounds, which is just chemicals that we’re using”, says Robillard. “We are testing for that to make sure that there is not too much in the air, and the big thing is dust, because you don’t know what’s in the dust. We are testing for… how much dust we are putting into the air, and we are testing for lead… And that happens every week. We get a report that gives us all the levels… If we go above our guideline, we stop work [and] figure out what’s going on.” Nevertheless, some students are still experiencing discomforting reactions to the dust from the construction. “I’m right next to the construction, I can see it from my window”, says Fitzpatrick. “I’m allergic to dust so I have to keep it shut at all times. I have to take an allergy pill every morning anyways, and that would [usually] help me, but I’ve noticed that my room is really stuffy sometimes and I’ll wake up in the morning and sneeze a billion times… I just hope it doesn’t get worse.” Even so, most students are unaffected and not threatened by the looming thought of dangerous carcinogens in the air due to construction. Sternberg relays that she feels safe and separated from the air in the construction site because of the firewall that is located around the perimeter of the buffer zone between the residential side and the construction side of Myles. “I don’t think they would put us at risk like that. Maybe I’m putting myself at risk by sleeping with my windows open at night… but at night there is no construction going on, so there is not as much dust in the air,” says Sternberg. “I’m not worried about being exposed to chemicals… they wouldn't allow us to be exposed to it and they are probably monitoring it so closely,” says Fitzpatrick. The Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is monitoring the chemicals closely, according to Robillard, who assures, “The majority of the demolition happened during the summer time. No one was living there… The negative air… is the pulling [of] the air into the [construction] space so the air from the space doesn't go out. So if you went to Myles today, in the buffer zone… we have fans on the construction side that pulls the air from your side into the construction side so that that the air from the construction side doesn't go into the residential parts. We use what we call… a HEPA filter which just takes all the particles out. So we have negative air, and we are taking the particles out of the air.” Whether you are a student at Myles, or a student off campus, all are awaiting the final product of the new and improved Myles Standish Hall.

The renovated student dormitory will be designed to respect and pay attribute to the prior historical building, since the building has so much history and Boston is such a historically centered city. “The outside of the building will be brought back to, I think it was 1929, but it will be closer to the feel of what it was intended to be,” says Robillard. Other features that students can look forward to is the park-like area that will have aesthetically pleasing plants and seeding, and will be located at the tip of Myles Standish. “We are doing that for two reasons: one, to soften it up, so you’re coming into a neighborhood, and it looks like you’re coming into a campus… Also, coming up Storrow drive, [it’s] the first look you have of Boston University, and you want to have a decent representation of that,” says Robillard.