Berklee College of Music - Facilities

Facilities

Berklee remained at its original location at 284 Newbury Street from its founding in 1945 to 1966, when it moved into the larger 1140 Boylston St. building, the former Hotel Bostonian. Beginning in 1972 an era of more rapid expansion began with the purchase of the Fenway Theatre and the adjoining Sherry Biltmore Hotel at 150 Massachusetts Avenue. The theater was renovated and opened as the 1,227-seat Berklee Performance Center in 1976. The former Biltmore Hotel provided additional classroom and practice room spaces and residence halls. It also houses the library, which was renamed the Stan Getz Library and Media Center in 1998. The 150 Massachusetts Avenue building is also the site of the Berklee Learning Center, which when it opened in 1993, was the world’s largest networked computer learning facility for music education.

The Genko Uchida Center at 921 Boylston Street opened in 1997 and houses the offices for enrollment, admissions, scholarships and student employment, the registrar, financial aid, bursar, rehearsal and classroom space, and the 200-seat David Friend Recital Hall. At 939 Boylston Street, Café 939, the nation’s only student-run, all-ages night club, hosts a full program of student performers, local and national acts, and community programs.

As of 2011, Berklee occupies 21 buildings primarily in the Back Bay area of Boston, near the intersection of Boylston Street and Massachusetts Avenue. Within these buildings are 13 recording studios, 5 film/video scoring and editing facilities, and 9 music synthesis facilities. The studios of the five-channel, commercial-free Berklee Internet Radio Network (BIRN), which launched in 2007, are also housed on campus. A new Liberal Arts building at 7 Haviland Street was dedicated in 2010. It houses the Liberal Arts, Music Therapy, and Music Business Departments, as well as the Africana Studies program.

In early 2011, Berklee College of Music announced its master plan of building 3 new buildings along the Massachusetts Avenue. First expected to be completed by Fall 2013 is the 16-story mixed-use building at 160 Massachusetts Avenue. This building will include 370 dorm rooms, a two-story cafeteria, a performance center, recording studios, and retail space. The second building is going to be built at the top of existing 130–136 Massachusetts Avenue (The Berklee Performance Centre). The new building is expected to house additional 450 students, as well as a state-of-the-art performing center, in its 24-story tall building. The third building is planned to be in 161–171 Massachusetts Avenue, which is expected to contain more academic and administrative space for the Berklee College of Music.