On Thursday, Sept. 17, as staff put finishing touches on the buffet table and Emersonians started filing into 186 Tremont St. to celebrate the official opening of the Cutler-Winn Commons, two students huddled over laptops in a booth at the back of the room, laughing and talking.
It was just their second time visiting Emerson’s newest “third space,” but it had already rocketed to the number one hangout spot for Carmen Talavera ’27 and Makende Stewart ’27.
“We came to try it out [Wednesday] and we love it here. We think this is the best thing Emerson could have ever done,” said Talavera, a Sports Communication major. “I love how it’s more modern, the seats are more comfortable, and it’s more space.”
Stewart, who is studying journalism and communication, said they come to do homework and just hang out.
“I like that it’s just [for] Emerson students, but it also feels like a café you’d walk into off the street,” she said.
Until recently, that’s exactly what the Cutler-Winn Commons was. But through a generous gift from real estate developer Arthur Winn, in memory of his good friend and former Emerson trustee Ted Cutler ’51, LHD ’07, the former restaurant has been transformed into a chic, spacious place for students to mingle and collaborate. During the workday, faculty and staff can gather in their own dedicated lounge in the adjoining 1880 Room. Both spaces can be reserved for Emerson functions.
By creating a new space for Emersonians to gather outside of classrooms, residence halls, and offices, the Cutler-Winn Commons looks to build community and enhance the campus experience, one of the priorities of Extraordinary Emerson 2030, the College’s strategic plan. It follows the opening of Griff’s Game Room in January 2026.
“Third spaces, as we call them, places that exist beyond where we live and we work, are incredibly important to building our campus culture,” President Jay Bernhardt said during the ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday afternoon. “Since I began as president, I’ve heard from many faculty, from staff, and especially from students that Emerson needed more places to gather informally and spend unconstructed time together.”
Bernhardt thanked Winn, sitting in the audience, on behalf of the entire Emerson community, as did Ellen Calmas, Ted Cutler’s daughter and herself an Emerson trustee.
Calmas spoke of her father’s love for Emerson and everything it had taught him, as well as his deep friendship with Winn.
“Arthur was very determined that his gift would reflect their extraordinary friendship… so you are standing in the result of his good intentions and his intentions that while you are at Emerson … you can convene here, you can meet new people… It can be part of the fabric of our Emerson community, which I have the great privilege of being a part of,” she said.
Speaking on behalf of faculty, Communication Studies Senior Executive-in-Residence Ken Grout, current chair of Faculty Assembly, said the Cutler-Winn Commons will allow faculty to recharge.
“Your beneficence has given us not merely the gift of a room, it has given us the gift of community and in so doing the gift of opportunity and of hope,” he said. “We as individuals and as a collective will embrace this space to assemble, to discuss, debate, laugh, argue, mourn, and ultimately choose what to help make of this extraordinary institution, both between now and 2030, as well as the 150 years to follow.”
