Emerson College, one of Boston’s “downtown colleges” is beginning a major renovation project to one of its main buildings, the Little Building on the corner of Tremont Street and Boylston Street.
The school says traffic and building access will not be disrupted but scaffolding will be erected all around the busy corner as Emerson restores the Little Building “to its original splendor,” said Andrew K. Tiedemann, Emerson’s vice president of communications and marketing, in a statement Friday.
“The Little Building, named for local businessman John Mason Little, was built in 1917 on the site of the Hotel Pelham, which was the first apartment house constructed on the Eastern seaboard,” Tiedemann said. “Historian Walter Muir Whitehall declared the Little Building ‘the most glorious office building of the World War I era’ and is considered Boston’s best example of Modern Gothic skyscraper. The building was featured in the August 1917 edition of the American Architect and Building News.”
Emerson purchased the building in 1994 and renovated it in 1995, preserving its original layout and artsy murals. It was concerted to a residence hall with offices on the main floor and Emerson’s student gym and dining hall on the lower levels.
Leave a Reply