NU Seeks to Replace Deteriorating Matthews Arena

Image courtesy of Perkins + Will

Northeastern University’s plan for a new 290,000-square-foot hockey and basketball arena is prompted by structural deterioration of the 124-year-old Matthews Arena.

The school is proposing a new multipurpose arena and practice facility at 262 St. Botolph St. The larger development would replace surface parking and the 90,000-square-foot venue, which was built upon wooden piles that have been settling and causing the arena’s walls to move vertically and horizontally, a Northeastern executive told a Boston Planning & Development Agency advisory group this week.

The school has installed steel trusses above an annex to shore up the west wall of Matthews Arena, said Carla Morelli, a Northeastern University senior project manager.

“What that is doing is trying to stop or arrest the movement of the wall, which is experiencing the most settlement, and allows us to continue to occupy the building safely for athletic events,” Morelli said. “So having done this work, we started understanding… we actually had to build a new arena.”

Matthews Arena was completed in 1910. Originally known as the Boston Arena, it was the home ice of the Boston Bruins until 1928.

The new 4-story facility will include 173,000 square feet of arena and public space, and 117,000 square feet for student recreation and team practice areas. Northeastern is considering use of a geothermal heating and cooling system to attain net-zero carbon standards, Morelli said.

Northeastern University this month filed its latest institutional master plan with the Boston Planning & Development Agency, laying out its real estate plans for the next decade on its 67-acre urban campus. The plan includes nine potential development sites, all of which were previously disclosed in the school’s 2013 document.

The arena project could begin in late 2025 and be completed in fall 2028. Because of the lack of available laydown space for construction equipment, some portions of the new arena will be assembled off-site.

A public comment period on the institutional master plan update runs through July 15.