Beginning shortly after Commencement, workers emptied Gasson Hall’s 22 classrooms and 38 offices in preparation for a 15-month renovation that will involve replacing much of the exterior stonework, as well as the east and west porticos. Interior systems will be upgraded, and 250 energy-efficient windows will be installed.
On July 12, workers on staging some 60 feet up were removing original cast stones and mortar from the central gable of the 97-year-old building’s east facade (facing O’Neill Plaza), having already demolished the portico below. The portico and gable will be restored using new cast blocks—fabricated in Canada to exactly replicate the originals. In all, some 6,800 stones will be replaced. When the work is completed, the entire building will have the luster of the tower, which was refurbished in 2008.
Gasson Hall was the University’s first classroom building constructed in Chestnut Hill. Called the Recitation Building, then the Tower Building, it is named for Thomas I. Gasson, SJ, the president of Boston College who proposed the move from cramped quarters in Boston’s South End.