ULI Boston - Creative Solutions to Meet University Student Housing Shortages

When

2025-11-13
2025-11-13T17:00:00 - 2025-11-13T19:30:00
America/New_York

Choose Your Calendar

    Where

    Boston Architectural College 320 Newbury St Boston, MA 02115-2703 UNITED STATES

    Contact

    [email protected]

    (800) 321-5011

    New event date: November 13th

    Pricing

    Early Pricing Until October 27 Members Non-Members
    Private $75.00 $100.00
    Public/Academic/Nonprofit $50.00 $70.00
    Retired $30.00 N/A
    Student $30.00 $35.00
    Under Age 35 $50.00 $70.00
    Standard Pricing Until November 12
    Private $100.00 $135.00
    Public/Academic/Nonprofit $75.00 $100.00
    Retired $45.00 N/A
    Student $45.00 $60.00
    Under Age 35 $75.00 $100.00
    Pricing
    Private $125.00 $170.00
    Public/Academic/Nonprofit $95.00 $130.00
    Retired $65.00 N/A
    Student $65.00 $90.00
    Under Age 35 $95.00 $130.00

    This event is open to everyone !

    Boston’s higher education institutions are facing an urgent challenge: a student housing shortage that is reshaping the city’s residential market. According to the City of Boston’s Fall 2024 University Accountability Report, more than 162,000 students are enrolled in Boston-based programs and only 33.5% live in university-managed housing. Many of these students are competing for limited rental housing, intensifying pressure on neighborhoods such as Fenway, Allston, Brighton, and Mission Hill.

    Join ULI Boston/New England’s Young Leaders Group for Creative Solutions to Meet University Student Housing Shortages, a dynamic panel discussion exploring how universities and their partners are addressing this complex issue through adaptive reuse, creative financing, and innovative partnerships.
     

    Agenda:
     
    5:00 – 5:30 PM | Registration
     
    5:30 – 6:45 PM | Presentation & Panel Discussion
     
    6:45 – 7:30 PM | Networking Reception
     

    Program Highlights

    Expert panelists from Skanska, NBBJ, and Gensler will share recent projects that exemplify creative approaches to university housing delivery, including:

    • 101 Tremont Street – Suffolk University
       An office-to-dorm conversion adding 285 beds in downtown Boston.
      The project team navigated significant zoning and permitting hurdles while modernizing the building to meet today’s safety and accessibility standards.
       
    • Innovation Studio & Messenger Residence Hall – Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)
       A donor-funded, ground-up mixed-use building integrating living and learning spaces.
      Originally planned as an innovation space renovation, the project pivoted to meet urgent housing needs, balancing financial feasibility and long-term campus strategy.
       
    • One Simmons – Simmons University
       A transformational campus redevelopment achieved through a university-developer partnership.
      A strategic land trade allowed Simmons to build a new living-learning center while generating financial returns for Skanska, overcoming permitting challenges and managing construction impacts in a dense urban environment.


       

    Together, these case studies illustrate how campus plans, cross-sector collaboration, and design innovation are shaping the future of student housing in Greater Boston.

    This program offers a deep dive into the strategies, challenges, and opportunities shaping university housing development—and its broader impact on affordability, community stability, and urban growth across Greater Boston.

    This program is open to all ULI members!

    Speakers

    Will Voulgaris

    NBBJ

    Will Voulgaris is a Principal and Studio Leader in NBBJ’s Boston office. With over 25 years of experience, he excels at leading high-performing, collaborative teams that deliver beautiful and well-functioning buildings through all phases of a project. His expertise includes managing and designing a variety of complex new and renovation projects for higher education, research, institutional and commercial clients. In addition to Will’s strong communication skills, he possesses deep technical knowledge of architectural systems, construction methods and project delivery models. Most recently he has led teams for academic projects at Cornell University, UMass Boston and Suffolk University.

    Keller Roughton

    Gensler

    Keller is a Principal and Studio Director in Gensler’s Boston office. He leads the Education Practice for the Northeast region, overseeing a broad range of innovative research, student life, and learning environments for clients. His studio’s focus on mission-driven education and healthcare clients is characterized by thoughtful and sustainable design solutions that will have a lasting impact within the communities they serve. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

    Michael Kocher

    Gensler

    Michael is a Design Resilience and Education Leader based in Gensler’s Boston office, where he helps realize the firm’s commitment to carbon neutrality through climate-adaptive design strategies. He has led winning national and international design competitions and been a part of research collaborations with high profile academic institutions, including MIT’s Sustainable Design Lab and the Illinois Institute of Technology for their House of the Future Prototype Study. Michael is currently leading the Academic Science Measurable Impact project for the Gensler Research Institute.

    Russ DeMartino

    Executive Vice President, Development, Skanska

    Russ is responsible for managing the development efforts for Skanska Commercial Development US (CDUS) in the Boston and New England Market. His duties include managing all of the development professionals in the CDUS Boston office, overall responsibilities for all aspects of Skanska USA Commercial Development projects in Boston, including sourcing of new development opportunities, design and construction, leasing, and disposition of assets. He has been in the real estate development industry for 23 years and in the Boston community for 18 years. He has experience with the development, design and construction of retail, condominium and mixed-use office projects. Prior to joining Skanska, Russ was Senior Director of Design and Construction with Tishman Speyer Properties, working on the Pier 4 office and condominium mixed-use project. Russ graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1993 with a BS in Civil Engineering and served as a helicopter pilot and Air Cavalry Officer for eight years in the US Army. He also graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA in 2003.

    Moderator

    Cherry Yang

    MSRE Candidate, MIT Center for Real Estate

    Cherry Yang is a candidate in the Master of Science in Real Estate Development program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, combining financial and strategic expertise with her background as a licensed architect and Certified Passive House Consultant (CPHC). She is committed to creating financially viable, mixed-use developments that are inclusive, climate-resilient, and community-focused. In Summer 2025, Cherry worked as a Summer Associate in Acquisitions and Investment Management at Jonathan Rose Companies, a mission-driven real estate firm managing a $662 million discretionary fund targeting affordable and mixed-income housing. The portfolio aims for a 20% reduction in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions and a 15% reduction in water use across all assets. Cherry underwrote $430 million in multifamily and mixed-use transactions, analyzed portfolios totaling 4,600+ units in nine states, and advanced deals to the final round of bidding—ensuring acquisitions met both financial return goals and environmental performance targets. Earlier in 2025, she led a strategy consulting team for Prologis through MIT’s Action Learning Lab, developing a dynamic financial calculator to evaluate sustainability retrofits and presenting Net Zero implementation pathways to senior leadership. Previously, at Utile, an Architizer Top 50 architecture firm, Cherry managed $81.5 million in multifamily and institutional projects, achieving four PHIUS pre-certifications and delivering significant operational cost savings through value engineering. Cherry has also taught at Boston University and Unitec in New Zealand, integrating sustainable design principles into architectural education and mentoring BIPOC students. Her vision is to lead at the intersection of finance, sustainability, and placemaking, shaping developments that deliver lasting value for people and the planet.