Master Plan set in motion

By Dylan Pichnarcik Editor-in-Chief Framingham State is seeking an additional $6.8 million to complete the conversion of Linsley Hall into apartments for faculty, staff and graduate students. Separately, $3.3 million in state funding has been designated to install air conditioning on the upper floors of Miles Bibb Hall. These efforts are part of the 10-year Campus Master Plan, according to Robert Totino, vice president of Finance, Technology, and Administration. In December 2025, the Master Plan was completed after being produced by architectural firm Studio Enée of South Boston. The Board of Trustees approved the final report in January 2026, according to Totino. The master plan divides projects into short-term (zero to three years), mid-term (four to six years) and long-term (seven to 10 years) phases. Totino said Studio Enée had “a very strong presence in the public higher education sphere,” adding, “We thought they were best equipped to work with Framingham State.” The firm had previously worked on campus and with MassBay Community College and UMass Boston. Linsley Hall is slated to become a 32-unit affordable housing facility for faculty, staff and graduate students, a priority project in the University’s master plan that administrators hope to advance in Spring 2027. Partial funding for the project was received via state monies through the Fair Share Supplemental Bill signed by Gov. Maura Healey in June 2025. The University received $6.6 million in funding. Half of the funds are earmarked toward the installation of air conditioning units in Miles Bibb Hall with the remainder going toward the Linsley renovation. The Board of Trustees approved pursuing additional funds to complete the Linsley Hall project at a recent meeting. Now, the University intends to work with the Massachusetts State College Building Authority to support the project in late February or early March 2027, with the project potentially starting in Spring 2027, according to Totino. To fully fund the project, the University will need $6.8 million in additional funding, according to Totino. Another major project that has come from the University’s Master Plan is the relocation of the University’s Library to the current plot of Foster Hall and the Daycare Center. The library project is part of the master plan’s mid-term priorities, but whether the University builds a new facility or renovates the Henry Whittemore Library remains undecided. Under the new-building concept, the existing library site could later be used for expanded parking or athletic amenities. The concept of a new library is a roughly 65,000-square-foot, five-story building, about half the size of the Whittemore Library, which sits at approximately 114,000 square feet. The new space would be rebranded as the Library Learning Commons, which includes compact shelving and new, attractive community and collaboration spaces, Totino said. The new Library Learning Commons would accommodate student study spaces, library collections, FSU centers, including CASA, Digital Humanities, IT and Technology, and Student Health Services, according to the University’s Master Plan. The project has an estimated total cost of over $91 million, according to the master plan. Currently, the University’s Communication, Media, and Performance Department is housed in the Whittemore Library. With the new library, the department could potentially be relocated into Hemenway Hall. The proposed relocation of the department came about during a recent feasibility study, Totino said. The location of the Whittemore Library could be used in the future for parking or outdoor student-programming amenities. However, this move remains conditional because of funding and relocation planning. An alternative option is to refurbish the Whittemore Library. Totino said the Whittemore Library is the second most energy-inefficient building and attributed its large carbon footprint to “nearly 425 million tons” of carbon-dioxide equivalents annually. Beyond those projects, the master plan also calls for lab upgrades and a new makerspace, where students can work on projects and test experiments. Longer-term proposals include addressing water infiltration at the McCarthy College Center and reorganizing academic programs across campus. At the McCarthy Center, a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar project to address water infiltration on the lower floors facing Church Street is scheduled for May and Summer 2027, according to Totino. Student input included a survey completed by about 60 students in May 2025 and an April 2025 poster-board session attended by 45 people. Emily Crossin, class of ’26, served as a student representative on the FSU Master Plan Steering Committee.