The front entrance of Snell Library, which has been closed since July 2023, will reopen to students Monday, May 20 at 8 a.m., Dean of the Library Dan Cohen announced in an email to the Boston campus community May 17.
For the night before its opening — Sunday, May 19 at 6 p.m. through Monday at 8 a.m. — the entire library will be closed to finalize the project, the email says. After the front entrance’s opening, the new side entrance, which has been the library’s primary entrance since construction on the front entrance started, will close until renovations are completed in the fall, according to the email.
The newly renovated first floor, which is expected to be fully completed later in summer 2024, will offer a new café, large event space, a “larger and more accessible lobby,” additional study space and reservable group study rooms, a “unified location” for IT services and wrap-around glass walls providing views of campus, according to the school.
After the newly renovated front entrance opens, study CoLabs A-G will be unavailable until first floor renovations are completed.
This marks the halfway point in the two-year Snell Library Renovation Project that will renovate all of Northeastern’s only undergraduate library, which began in spring 2023. Shortly after the newly renovated fourth floor reopened in November 2023, the third floor closed, leaving only the first and fourth floors open, as well as the basement.
The second and third floors are currently closed for renovations. Third floor renovations are expected to be completed in summer 2024, while the second floor, which closed in February, is expected to be completed in fall 2024.
Students have criticized Snell for being overcrowded, especially after COVID-19 when hundreds of tables and chairs were removed to enforce social distancing — Snell’s normal capacity of 2,000 was reduced to 750 during the pandemic. Although tables and chairs were added back in once social distancing guidelines were dropped, some students have still expressed frustration that the more than 17,000-person student body is not adequately supported by just one library.
