Boston’s colleges and universities play an invaluable role in the city’s economic development, cultural vitality, and quality of life. Nearly 400,000 students enroll in Boston’s institutions of higher education each year, and Boston is world-renown as an international leader in higher education.

The Alliance has taken a leadership role in fostering a dialogue about how Boston’s colleges and universities can grow and evolve while preserving and revitalizing the historic buildings on their campuses that define their identities. In October 2007, the Boston Preservation Alliance convened one-day Symposium at the Boston Architectural College entitled Campus Heritage Planning: The Urban Challenge. The event was principally sponsored by Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the Boston Redevelopment Authority and drew over one hundred and fifty academic administrators, architects, planners, government officials, and preservation professionals.

The Alliance has used the Symposium as a launching point for an initiative to engage college and university administrators, professionals and residents of Boston in order to address some of the complex challenges in planning for and developing our historic college and university campuses.

For more information about this Symposium or the Campus Heritage initiative, please call the Alliance at 617-367-2458 or email admin@bostonpreservation.org.