Departments
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Week of 22 October 1999 |
Vol. III, No. 11 |
Feature
Article
Xanadu on the Charles
Palatial roost for BU's rowing teams
By Hope Green
Among the pleasures of studying or working at Boston University's Charles River Campus are its picturesque water views. The sight of rowers gliding through the current in sleek featherweight shells adds to the natural beauty, yet it wasn't so long ago that BU's crew teams were in danger of leaving this tranquil scene forever.
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The DeWolfe Boathouse is painted
yellow, in keeping with tradition, and is roofed
with prepatinated copper. Photo by Michael Hamilton
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BU alumni, crew members, parents, friends, and trustees are scheduled to dedicate the boathouse on Saturday, October 23, coinciding with the first day of the weekend-long rowing event. College crews race on Sunday.
"This is tremendously exciting, and in a sense a little awesome, because the physical structure looks so much better than the artist's rendering," says Richard DeWolfe (MET'71), the BU trustee who initiated the Pulling Together building campaign in 1996 with a $1 million gift in memory of his paternal grandparents, Alice and Burpee L. DeWolfe. Cost of the project is now estimated at more than $5 million.
"The response I've been hearing from the crews, coaches, professors, and everyone who passes by on Memorial Drive is overwhelming," adds DeWolfe, chairman and CEO of DeWolfe New England Real Estate. "I hope this will be a real stimulus to future giving to athletics at BU."
Designed by Architectural Resources Cambridge, Inc., the boathouse was built on the site of the demolished century-old original. It features four working bays, increased training space, an exterior balcony for better viewing and supervision, exercise areas, a weight room, coaches' offices, and a meeting room with a trophy display area. Semicircular gables jut from four sides of the roof for enhanced lighting and ventilation.
Fir and birch paneling, high arching timbers, and a gleaming white-maple floor in the meeting room make the interior a warmly inviting space for functions. There is now ample belowground storage space for shells, and the dock area has been increased by 75 percent. The entrance to the building has been set slightly back from Memorial Drive, making way for a plaza of red and black granite.
"This boathouse is brand-new from the ground up. It's a real jewel on the Charles," says Michael Hathaway, the University's director of operations, who steered the project through a two-year public approval process in Cambridge. Residents who participate in a BU-sponsored community rowing program "came out faithfully to every public hearing in favor of the boathouse project," he adds.
BU had leased the property from the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) as a tenant-at-will since the 1960s but now has a long-term leasing arrangement with the agency. The old structure on the site was once home of the Boston Athletic Association, and later MIT's crew team, before the Terriers moved in.
Until the old building was demolished a year ago, the Terriers gamely tolerated undependable showers, a temperamental heating system, warped floors, crooked stairs, and chemical fumes from the insufficiently ventilated boat-repair shop. Rodney Pratt, men's crew coach, says the new headquarters will do wonders for team morale. "It's like a palace," he says.
Holly Hatton, women's crew coach, adds that the structure will help BU recruit more women athletes. "The building is a showpiece. It's going to be a selling point for the University as well as the rowing teams."
BU first recognized men's crew as a varsity sport in 1939, and women's in 1973. The teams and Terrier alumni have won medals in several national and Olympic competitions. DeWolfe first turned his attention to the boathouse project in 1996, when he joined the Board of Trustees and was simultaneously appointed to the board's athletic and development committees. At the time, the future of Boston University crew was uncertain as the old boathouse continued to splinter.
"Crew has been a really strong part of BU's athletic program," DeWolfe says, "and the more I became familiar with it, the more I realized we needed to generate some leadership" to build a new home for the rowing teams.
The river sport is a healthful outlet for the 150 undergraduates who participate each year, DeWolfe adds, and aptly symbolizes his grandparents' attitude toward community and professional life.
"Rowing teaches you to be tough and strong and determined while in synchronization with everyone else," he explains. "Successful people are those with high individual ideals and the ability to work with others, and crew is an interesting study in how to do that."
Dedication of the boathouse on Saturday, October 23, is by invitation only, but a ceremony to dedicate three new shells, at 11 a.m., is free and open to the public. A family and class barbecue follows at noon; food must be purchased and a dock pass is required. In addition, Friends of Crew is sponsoring dinnertime excursions (in boats operated by Charles River Cruises) and a Sunday brunch at the Hyatt Regency. Both of these events cost $30 per person. For dinner or brunch reservations, call Gerry Cooke at 353-1064.