Students living in the apartments at 10 Cleaveland Street were informed in an e-mail Thursday afternoon that they should limit the number of visitors to their apartments because the building may not be structurally safe for large gatherings.
In the e-mail, Director of Residential Life Mary Pat McMahon wrote, "Each apartment in Cleaveland Street should limit visitors to no more than three or four guests at any given time. The structure is quite safe as a residence, but it should not be used for large gatherings."
As a result of the new requirements, students living in the apartments will no longer be able to register parties.
The change came about after residents noticed that the ceilings of the apartments were tilted and the floors often shook.
Residential Assistant Ugo Egbunike brought the issue to Residential Life this summer and again in the fall.
"You could tell that some parts [of the apartments] needed additional attention," he said.
However, he said that "they thought the issues pertained to the house being old," and Residential Life pushed the inspection back until fall break.
The e-mail from McMahon noted that over the past week, Facilities has been working on the railings, basement, and stairwells of the building. An engineer brought in to inspect the building made the new recommendations.
"We want to restrict capacity," said McMahon. "We're being conservative about safety."
Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance Katy Longley said that there were safety issues with railings and floor structures inside the house.
"There were some railings, some floor structures that needed to be fixed," Longley said. She said that many of the repairs will be made when students are away on vacation.
"We're going to try and do most [the repairs] over break," she said, but added that some of the repairs, like railings, could be done while students occupied the buildings.
"We're going to try and work around the students' schedules," Longley said.
Associate Director Major Maintenance Programs for Facilities Mike Veilleux, who is overseeing the inspection, did not respond to numerous requests for an interview.
Several of the students living in the building had not read the e-mail from McMahon. Juniors Sam Smith and Ahmad Hassan Muhammed, who live in a first-floor apartment, were initially "outraged" when they learned that residents would not be able to register parties.
"Not much we can do about it, right?" said Muhammed.
Sara Griffin '09, who lives in an upstairs apartment, said, "I'm glad that they brought in an engineer to look at it since it's been something I've been thinking about. When I hear creaks, I get a little nervous."
"Knowing that an engineer approved this as being safe to live in makes me feel more comfortable," Griffin added. "I just hope that we don't get punished because they didn't check it out before putting the building in the housing lottery."
-Nick Day contributed to this report.