Boston Arts Academy Tops Off $125 Million Building, Fulfilling Walsh's 2014 Promise

BOSTON — July 22, 2026 — Boston Arts Academy marked a topping-off milestone for its new $125 million Fenway facility on July 22. Mayor Martin J. Walsh, awaiting U.S. Senate confirmation as secretary of labor, placed the project in personal terms, recalling a 2014 pledge to BAA families that the academy would be the first school he built as mayor after he broke up an unworkable plan to construct it over the expressway alongside the Josiah Quincy Upper School. The Massachusetts School Building Authority is contributing approximately $47 million; MSBA Executive Director Jack McCarthy noted that Boston has partnered with the authority on more than 30 projects since Walsh took office, up from near zero. The completed building will include a 500-seat professional theater, a rooftop recital hall, a black box theater, dance and music rehearsal studios, and STEAM resources for the school's 480 students, who have posted a 97 percent college acceptance rate for six consecutive years. Lee Kennedy Construction is the general contractor, with PMA Consultants, Perkins Eastman, and SMMA rounding out the project team.