First Year Tower Residence Hall

Quick Facts

Number of Stories

18

First Year Tower will include 18 occupied stories.

Passive House Standards

The building is designed to meet Passive House standards.

Number of Beds

972

The residence hall will house our entire first year class.

Number of Alumni

49

To date, 49 Wentworth alumni have worked on the project.

Key Information

We appreciate your patience as construction gets underway, and we will continue to share project updates as work progresses.

Milestone Dates

12.02.2026 – Tower Crane Installation
12.14.2026 – Begin Vertical Structure Construction
01.01.2027 – Begin Dining Space Construction
03.04.2027 – Material Hoist Installation
10.01.2027 – Begin Elevator
02.11.2028 – Weathertight, Begin MEP Startups
02.16.2028 – Tower Crane Removal
03.23.2028 – Material Hoist Removal
06.05.2028 – Begin MEP Commissioning
08.15.2028 – Substantial Completion
Construction Hours

Standard Construction hours are Monday through Friday from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM, with construction activity typically occurring between 7:00 AM and 4:00 PM. Occasional Saturday work will typically take place between 7:00 AM and 3:00 PM.
Sustainability Highlights
Setting a New Standard for Sustainable Campus Living
- At 18 stories, approximately 202,000 square feet, and 972 beds, the First-Year Tower is anticipated to be one of the largest Passive House residence halls in the Northeast.
- The project brings together high-performance design, a low-carbon energy strategy, responsible material selection, and a major transformation of the campus landscape.
- The project advances Wentworth’s 20+ year commitment to high-performance, sustainable buildings.
Designed to Use Less Energy
- Pursuing Phius CORE 2024 Passive House certification
- Fossil fuel-free, all-electric design
- High-performance insulation, airtight construction, triple-glazed windows, and energy-recovery ventilation will substantially reduce energy use while improving comfort and indoor air quality
- Solar-ready roof designed to accommodate future renewable energy
- Renewable-energy procurement planned to match 100% of annual electricity use and support the project’s net-zero operational-carbon goal
LEED Gold-Level Performance
- Designed to achieve LEED Gold-certifiable standards
- Anticipating 67 LEED points, with additional opportunities under evaluation
- With the addition of the First-Year Tower, nearly 40% of Wentworth’s campus building area will be designed to meet LEED standards.
Building With a Smaller Carbon Footprint
- Energy use is only part of a building’s climate impact. The project is also addressing embodied carbon: the emissions associated with producing and installing materials such as concrete, steel, insulation, and glass.
- Whole-building life-cycle assessment used to evaluate material impacts
- Environmental Product Declarations provide transparent information about the environmental impacts of products used in the building
- Targeting more than 40 products with Environmental Product Declarations
Creating a Greener, More Connected Campus
- Reduces on-site parking from 198 spaces to 17 while creating approximately 28,000 square feet of new outdoor space
- Reduces impervious site area from approximately 94% to 53%
- Includes more than 12,000 square feet of planting beds with trees, shrubs, and groundcover
- Native and adaptive plants, rain gardens, permeable pavement, and underground infiltration systems will reduce runoff and help manage increasingly intense rainfall
- Provides 288 new bicycle parking spaces, including 240 secure, weather-protected spaces
- Adds a new 27-dock Bluebikes station on campus
- Earns a Walk Score of 92, “Walker’s Paradise”
Conserving Water
- 37% reduction in indoor water use compared with the LEED baseline
- 48% reduction in outdoor water use compared with the EPA water-budget baseline
- WaterSense-certified plumbing fixtures and weather-responsive irrigation controls
Supporting Health, Comfort, and Resilience
- Continuous ventilation provides healthy air throughout the building
- High-performance construction supports stable indoor temperatures, fewer drafts, and improved acoustic comfort
- Low-emitting interior materials help protect indoor air quality
- 99.5% of regularly occupied spaces with dimmable or multilevel lighting
Reducing Waste
- At least 50% of construction waste targeted for diversion from disposal, with an aspirational goal of 75%

Renderings

View renderings of the First Year Tower Residence Hall

From the Field: Construction Update

Building Time Lapse Video as of October 16, 2026

Updated October 16, 2026

Construction of the First-Year Tower continues to make significant progress. Work scheduled during October focuses primarily on major foundation operations, completion of underground infrastructure, and preparation for the next phase of structural construction. Activities include final piping connections, required inspections, testing, backfilling operations, and removal of temporary excavation support systems. Community members may continue to notice excavation equipment, trucking activity, and crane operations associated with this work.

Foundation construction remains the primary focus throughout the month. Workers will continue excavation and construction of pile caps, grade beams, foundation mats, and reinforced concrete elements that will support the residence hall structure. Multiple concrete pours are scheduled over the coming weeks, including large foundation placements, along with continued deliveries of reinforcing steel and other construction materials. Crews will also complete waterproofing, insulation, drainage systems, and backfilling in finished foundation areas. As foundation activities advance toward completion, the project will be well positioned to begin the next stage of construction and the development of the building's structural frame. Preparations for the project's tower crane will continue, including work associated with the crane foundation and temporary power infrastructure. The project team is also completing a full-scale exterior mock-up featuring precast concrete panels, windows, curtain wall elements, lovers, granite base, and sealants. This mock-up will be reviewed by the City of Boston and project stakeholders to confirm appearance and quality before full installation begins.

Foundation Construction Sequence

With the end-bearing piles completed at the end of August, foundation work moved to excavating for pile caps and grade beams. A pile cap is a thick block of reinforced concrete that sits on top of a group of two or more piles, tying them together and spreading a column or wall load evenly across them. A grade beam is a reinforced concrete beam that carries loads from the building's load-bearing walls and columns to the pile caps.

The Sequence Plan (linked below) shows the work moving clockwise around the site, starting on the east side next to Kingman Hall. Each color represents a phase. Smaller pile caps run along the perimeter, and a large pile cap, shown in yellow, sits at the center. The center cap required about 1,100 cubic yards of concrete, poured in a single continuous operation using two concrete pumps. Just over 100 concrete trucks entered and exited the site until the pour was complete. Once the perimeter pile caps are in place, crews will apply waterproofing and insulation to their outer faces and then backfill soil around the foundation.

A 100-foot tower crane was erected in September to move reinforcing bar and formwork around the foundation and support concrete pours. The crane was inspected by a third party. When this crane is not in use, it will rotate freely in the wind. This is called weathervaning, or free-slewing, and it's a deliberate safety feature that reduces stress on the crane and keeps it from twisting.

Foundation work will continue through mid-November. Next, crews will install underground electrical, plumbing, and fire protection lines and pour the ground-floor slab. In December, the 100-foot crane will be replaced with a much larger tower crane as the building begins to rise.

View the Foundation Sequence Plan (accessible PDF)

Outside the Fence: Construction Impact

Please be advised that construction of the new building's facade mockup will take place outside of Ira Allen at the location shown in red on the adjacent site plan. This work will continue through October, and pedestrian access will be maintained in and around the buildings. Significant impacts to overall parking availability are not anticipated. The mockup will remain in place until the completion of the project in August 2028.