Pictured above are some of the members of the team that worked on the new Center. Photo by Tony Loreti.

It was the equivalent of a triple back flip off the high board into a teacup.

"The completion of the Botanic Gardens Children's Center had a degree of difficulty approaching the infinite," says Kathy Spiegelman, associate vice president for planning and real estate.

Spiegelman, speaking about the recently opened Center on Garden Street, could not say enough about the Harvard Planning & Real Estate (HPRE) team, led by Susan Keller and Jonathan Lavash, that managed the project.

"All HPRE project teams must work through the complications involved in any Harvard building activity," she says. "Anyone who has renovated a kitchen or added a room at home has some idea about the number of changes and glitches that occur in a construction effort. It's always hard to achieve a quality outcome while respecting the constraints of available funds and schedule commitments.

"At Harvard, building projects are further complicated by the need for participation from diverse segments of the internal and external community. It's important for us to work across Schools and departments and with Cambridge or Boston before proceeding, and that always takes lots of time.

"But," she adds, "the Botanic Gardens Center was exceptionally challenging for a number of reasons having to do with an unusual decision-making process, the stringent requirements for building child care centers, and the difficulties of adapting current space to a new use."

Part of the playground at the new Botanic Gardens Children's Center. The interior of the Center features some child-centered extras like a front entryway furnished to look like a home. Each classroom features running water, direct access to the outdoor play area, generous storage space, windows that look out to the central corridor, and windows at a child's eye level.

The building project became necessary when, in 1997, the Law School announced that it needed to reclaim the space occupied by the Law School Child Care Center to use it for academic purposes. Faced with the loss of one of the six University-sponsored day care centers and the difficulties that loss would pose for a group of parents closely connected to the University, the Harvard community pulled together to develop a plan for a new center.

President Neil L. Rudenstine and Dean Robert Clark of the Law School pledged funds for construction, and Dean Jeremy R. Knowles of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences promised ongoing financial support. Then HPRE helped to identify a possible site in an existing Harvard building located in the Botanic Gardens Housing Complex on Garden Street. The decision was made to create a new child care center in space occupied by a garage building in the complex. At that point, it was up to HPRE to hire an architect and prepare to construct the center to meet the deadline set by the Law School -- January 1999.

HPRE worked closely with Mary Cronin from the Office of Human Resources, Judy Walker from the Office of Work and Family, and Mary Power, Harvard's director of community relations for Cambridge, to satisfy the concerns of Cambridge officials, the parent board of the Law School Center, the tenants of Botanic Gardens, and the abutting neighbors on Garden Street.

"The large number of players and interests in this project certainly added to the difficulty of completing it within the time and budget available," says Spiegelman. "Child care does not have a tub of funding of its own at Harvard, so we had to convince the University's leaders to support this project on the basis of original projections and then later projections that included information available only when we had completed the design and the regulatory process. The bottom line was that on January 1 we wanted 43 children to be able to start the new year in the new facility -- period!

"The people who would be using the space [the child care staff and parents] had interests separate from those who were funding the project. Abutters to the proposed project, including Harvard departments, found that the potential for disruption while the Center was under construction and when it became completely operational dampened their enthusiasm for the project. The need for agreement and approval from a large number of players with different points of view definitely slowed down progress in a schedule that started out with almost no wiggle room."

On top of local zoning requirements, rigid guidelines set by the Massachusetts Office of Child Care Services regarding the construction and design of child care centers added time and expense to the project. According to Jonathan Lavash, senior project manager, these restrictions are challenging because they specify space allocation, materials, and strict safety considerations.

"We needed to satisfy these requirements," says Lavash, as well as "design space that would be appealing to children, and provide an exterior that was in keeping with the existing structures. We developed a 'wish list,' working with Brooks Design, a firm that specializes in child care center design, and with the Center's director, staff, and parent board of directors. Then we evaluated the list against the legal requirements, the budget, and the timeline."

Susan Keller, HPRE client executive for the project, believes that the finished Center provides a unique setting for children. "The new Center is a warm and welcoming environment that features some wonderful child-centered extras. The front entryway is furnished to look like a home and the long hallway separating the rooms meanders through the building rather than moving in a straight line. Each classroom features running water, direct access to the outdoor play area, generous storage space, windows that look out to the

central corridor, and windows at a child's eye level."

"Development projects are always a minefield of what could go wrong," says Keller. "Constructing new and creative space within the parameters set by government, clients, neighbors, and a cast of thousands really is an art, and it was the combined effort of a terrific and committed team that made this project a success."