Above, the front entrance to the Franklin Cummings Tech training school at 1011 Harrison Ave. in Nubian Square. Seth Daniel photo
A new $75 million facility in Nubian Square has Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology headed into its next 100 years on solid footing. Students reported to the new building last week for the current semester and staff and faculty were set to celebrate with the community today, Jan. 22, in a ribbon cutting grand opening.
“It’s exhilarating,” said President Dr. Aisha Francis (pictured below), a former resident of Ashmont-Adams in Dorchester. “I’m so grateful we have the opportunity to gift this building and space to all of our stakeholders. It’s been a long time coming and it feels wonderful to have reached this milestone.
“It’s bright and new and you can see outside from all but one classroom,” she continued. “This is a much better utilized building and the concept was designed for transparency looking from outside-in, and internally.”
The newly-branded Franklin Cummings Tech training school replaces a facility that stood in the South End on Berkeley Street since 1908 and was funded by money set aside in Benjamin Franklin’s will to start technology schools in Boston and Philadelphia. Offering 10 certificate or associates degree program majors such as HVAC, electricity, cybersecurity, automotive mechanics, robotics, and many others, the South End facility – while a wonderful example of art deco architecture – had more constraints every year. In 2019, President Francis announced the school would sell its three-building campus and pursue a new facility nearby – which ended up being at 1011 Harrison Ave. where the former Harrison Supply stood.
The Liberty Learning Lab featured outdoor HVAC equipment that students can learn on in the same conditions they will encounter in the field. Seth Daniel photo
Headquartered in Roxbury, the school attracts around 20 percent of its enrollment from Dorchester and Mattapan, with more than half of the students coming from Boston. She said when they started looking for a site, they knew they would be in Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, or Hyde Park because it would be central to most of their student body in Boston.
The new building comes just as the curriculum and programs have trended in the right direction with students and families seeking job training with a high return on investment, as well as careers that won’t soon be squashed by artificial intelligence (AI). That has coincided with a major bump in enrollment to 1,200 students.
“When I started this position in 2018 we were reeling from the pandemic,” Francis noted. “We were at 550 in 2020, and that was quite a low point for us in enrollment, but we’ve turned that around. That’s the good news.”
Another piece of good news is that the future looks like Franklin Cummings Tech programs will remain in high demand.
Students participate in a discussion during a robotics class last Friday. Seth Daniel photo
“For all of our certificate programs and all of our programs, the things we look at are what the role of automation or AI will be in career technical education,” she said. “There is a role, but you will still need operators and maintenance of this built environment. If it’s three-dimensional, you’ll still need human beings to build it and repair it or prepare a robot to do the work. That’s what we think about in our curriculum design.”
Now they will also have a state-of-the-art facility to match the demand and the changing landscape. Along with robotics labs and student work spaces and a new auto repair shop, there are simple things like the Liberty (Mutual) Learning Lab on the roof of the school. Outside are air conditioners, heat pumps and other HVAC equipment that students repair in realistic conditions.
“All that equipment in the field is upstairs and outside, but previously our install area was inside, and we simulated outdoors,” she said. “Now that will be located outdoors in the conditions they will be really working in.”
School statistics indicated Franklin Cummings Tech places 85 percent of its graduates in a job soon after completing coursework, with an average starting salary of $57,000 to $58,000. For more information, go online to franklincummings.edu.
A student lounge and study space on the roof of the facility overlooks Roxbury and Dorchester – perfect for the spring, summer, and fall months. Seth Daniel photo
An HVAC program classroom. The program routinely has a waiting list of students looking to break into the field. Seth Daniel photo
Ample and spacious student spaces are located in the central corridor of every floor, with student lockers available to keep supplies. Seth Daniel photo
A student takes a break from classes in the front lobby of the new facility. Seth Daniel photo
