The John Hancock Student Village or (StuVi) is a large residential and recreational complex at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

, covering between Buick Street and Nickerson Field, ground formerly occupied by a

National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...

Armory, which had been used by the University primarily (but not exclusively) as a storage facility prior to its

demolition Demolition (also known as razing and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction (building), deconstruction, which inv ...

and the start of construction. The John Hancock Student Village was designed with the intention of fostering

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

and bridging the divide between East and West campuses. The student residences at 10 Buick Street (often abbreviated to "StuVi" by students) opened to juniors and seniors in the fall of 2000. 10 Buick Street houses 817 residents in apartment-style living. In 2002, John Hancock Insurance announced its sponsorship of the multimillion-dollar project. The Agganis Arena, named after Harry Agganis, was opened to concerts and hockey games in January 2005. The 7,200-seat arena replaced the smaller Walter Brown Arena for Terrier hockey games and has also been used for concerts, shows, and events. In March 2005 the final element of phase II of the Student Village complex, the Fitness and Recreation (FitRec) Center, was opened, drawing large crowds from the student body. The center incorporates 6

racquetball Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase vel ...

and squash courts, a competition pool, a recreational pool, two

gym A gym, short for gymnasium (: gymnasiums or gymnasia), is an indoor venue for exercise and sports. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasion". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learn ...

nasia, a jogging track, a lazy river, and a rock climbing wall, among other sports-related areas. A 26 and 19-story dorm tower which houses 960 students was finished in late 2009 (often abbreviated "StuVi2" or "StuVii" by students). ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'' ran a cover-page article about it, describing it as "perhaps the most opulent residence hall to ever grace the local college landscape." The student residences and others like it have created somewhat of a controversy, with detractors saying it represents a step further of coddling the younger generation. BU's president, Robert Brown, said the tower will allow the entirety of the 80% of 16,000 undergrads who want to live on campus to be able to do so. Because the school guarantees on-campus housing, freshmen were often shunted into nearby hotels, a practice long criticized by the student newspaper. Brown also said it assuages

town and gown Town and gown are two distinct communities of a college town, university town; 'town' being the non-academic population and 'gown' Metonymy, metonymically being the university community, especially in ancient seats of learning such as Universit ...

relations with local Allston residents in response to studentification. Plans were made for an additional residence located between the student residences at 33 Harry Agganis Way and 10 Buick Street. The project, known as Student Village III (StuVi3 or StuViii), are currently on hold as a result of the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

Notes

{{Boston University Buildings at Boston University Student quarters