04/27/2015
Lowell Sun
By Grant Welker
Just off University Avenue on North Campus, crews have begun demolishing Eames Hall, a stately brick building that was once a pair with Smith Hall. The twin buildings were the first two dorms built in the late 1940s for what was then the Lowell Textile Institute.
Smith Hall was knocked down in 2011 to clear space for the Mark and Elisia Saab Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center.
Eames Hall will make way for the Pulichino Tong Business Building, a four-story, 52,000 square-foot building slated to open in 2017. The business school is now located in two nearby buildings, Falmouth Hall and Pasteur Hall.
The $40 million new home for the business school was made possible thanks in part to $4 million in donations from its eponymous donors: alumnus John Pulichino, a 1967 UMass Lowell graduate, and his wife, Joy Tong.
In total, $14 million in private donations will help pay for the building, along with a $25 million state bond.
Construction of the new building is expected to begin after the spring graduation ceremony May 16.
Eames Hall's classic style is part of a campus look that is going by the wayside at UMass Lowell as a wave of modern construction remakes the school.
There are several similar buildings remaining, including Southwick Hall across University Avenue, and Coburn Hall on South Campus.
But in construction sweeping across the three campuses, UMass Lowell has taken on a more modern look, including the Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center, which took the place of one of the Lowell Textile Institute dorms.
Across the Merrimack River, the former St. Joseph's Hospital has been remade into University Crossing. On South Campus, the modern Health and Social Sciences Building opened in 2012 on Wilder Street next to the 1970s-era McGauvran Student Center, which is being renovated into a glass-fronted space for dining and gathering spaces for students and staff.