Demolition of Northeastern University’s historic Matthews Arena begins

The demolition of Northeastern University’s Matthews Arena began in March.

The Boston-arena is being deconstructed to make room for a new multi-purpose athletics and recreation complex, which the university said will be fossil-fuel free and use rainwater for the ice rink.

The 115-year-old arena occupies 106,000-square-feet on Northeastern’s campus in downtown Boston. The site held nearly 5,000 people and is situated between two subway stations and surrounded by community buildings. Given its location in a dense area, the university says the building will be disassembled to avoid disrupting the surrounding community.

Crews from Suffolk Construction are using a high-reach excavator to carefully pick apart pieces of the structure for recycling, also saving precious artifacts along the way. Suffolk says the building will be taken down in a “very controlled manner.” Northeastern says the process will likely take about three months.

Suffolk added that they will recycle as much as possible The structural steel trusses and columns, bricks and concrete will be sent to recycling plants. The concrete will be crushed to be reused as fill or gravel for another project.

Parts of the old structure will be preserved, including its historic arch, which dates back to 1901 and will be used in the new building. Northeastern says a team of masons will salvage 1,000 bricks that will be sold by the university as memorabilia from the old arena.

The new arena is scheduled to be finished in the fall of 2028. The complex will span 310,000-square-feet across the entire two acres of the old arena’s footprint. It will house 4,050 fans for hockey and 5,300 for basketball.