ALLSTON: INTERIM REPORT 2005

The report presents three different ideas for grouping science buildings.

While a framework for the Allston campus takes shape over the next year, academic planning will also evolve as concepts are debated and new ideas are proposed by Harvard faculty, students and staff in the coming months.

"We've learned a great deal over the last two years about students' and faculty members' aspirations for our Allston land," said Provost Steven E. Hyman. "But there's much more work to be done: listening to campus and community, identifying and prioritizing projects and activities, and developing more textured programmatic plans for these projects. This must be a community-wide effort if we are to build upon Harvard's strengths and address our needs for decades to come."

"Planning for a such a complex project is always an iterative process," said Cooper's David McGregor. "Exploring different ideas and having a range of people experience them will help inform the next series of decisions as the University progresses toward the goal of creating a vibrant built environment where people live, work, and play. As Harvard moves forward, this back and forth will help the University to imagine its shared future."

Read related Gazette articles in the special Allston: Interim Report 2005 The Allston Initiative Web site is located at www.allston.harvard.edu. The Allston Initiative is committed to keeping the Harvard community and its neighbors informed about what is going on in Allston. Visit the site to learn more about Allston, current events, and the vision for Harvard's development.

Broad consultation will continue in the fall, building on these planning assumptions:

Science in Allston

Over the past year, science has grown as a particular priority for Allston and the University as a whole.

In April, the Science and Technology Task Force, including scientists from Harvard Medical School, the School of Public Health and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, as well as faculty from Harvard Business School, released a set of recommendations for emerging interdisciplinary science initiatives at Harvard in Cambridge, Longwood, and Allston.

New and emerging fields in the sciences are evolving rapidly. If promising areas of new scientific inquiry, such as the Stem Cell Institute, are to advance life-saving research, then new facilities to support those initiatives are an urgent need. If Harvard is to remain at the forefront of the sciences, new interdisciplinary fields that bring the life sciences together with the physical sciences, engineering, and mathematics, will require the new kinds of space that Allston can provide.

Based on the opportunities that exist and the plans of the Harvard faculty for research and teaching, the Science and Technology Task Force recommended a first science building of 500,000 square feet to be followed by an adjacent 500,000 square feet of research and teaching space. Because the process of selecting an architect is a long one, a building committee has been formed to begin the process with the support of a design group and will continue program planning.

Provost Hyman will be consulting with science departments and other faculties about program ideas and possible sites throughout the fall.

The report suggests three different options for cultural facilities. The options are contingent on the outcome of negotiations with Charlesview Apartments.

Culture and the arts

Studies to date have pointed to arts and culture as critical to the Allston campus experience, valuable for curricular and academic opportunities and a benefit to the broader community. Last year the subcommittee on culture of the Allston Life Task Force identified major issues facing the University's museums and performing and visual arts programs and their related academic departments, and discussed options for meeting their needs.

The subcommittee recommended several steps for further study, which are currently ongoing, including:

• An assessment of the arts physical facilities at Harvard, including an inventory of existing Harvard arts spaces and analysis of their utilization.

• A benchmark analysis of comparable arts facilities at other institutions.

As these studies are completed, further planning and evaluation of possible sites will occur over the coming months.

Building on the work of the Allston Life Task Force, a working group of faculty and campus cultural leaders will begin to develop more specific proposals based on the analyses of the task force. Associate Provost and Director of Cultural Programs Sean Buffington will help organize these planning efforts.

Three options for professional schools are offered in the report. The options are contingent on the outcome of negotiations with Charlesview Apartments.

New homes for Graduate School of Education and School of Public Health

The Allston planning assumptions proposed by President Lawrence H. Summers in October 2003 point to the possibility of Allston as a new home for the Graduate School of Education (GSE) and parts of the School of Public Health (SPH). Both Schools are developing their own strategic plans for Allston. As these take form, initial site concepts developed by the Cooper, Robertson team show the potential for new and larger homes for the SPH, with appropriate interaction with science, and the GSE with an appropriate adjacency to the Harvard Business School and other program elements, as well as room for further growth for both in the longer term.

The Schools have expressed an interest in exploring possible common facilities and programs among the graduate programs in Allston. An example is a possible graduate student center, or combined technical support facilities. These ideas will be explored further in academic planning and in the Cooper, Robertson framework planning process.

The report offers four options for new undergraduate houses.

Undergraduate life in Allston

The Task Force on Undergraduate Life found last year that linking undergraduate life to Harvard's future in Allston would advance new academic and programmatic opportunities for students and bring enhancements to cultural, artistic, and athletic activities.

Although decisions have not been made regarding undergraduate houses in Allston or their location, the Cooper, Robertson team was asked to explore "what if" concepts for four possible new houses at the river's edge, as well as possible sites for a student center to serve undergraduates. New and expanded athletic facilities that would provide increased capacity and enhanced programming are also under study by the Cooper Robertson team. Feedback from the Harvard community and North Allston neighbors over the coming months will help advance concepts for undergraduate facilities in Allston.

Options for graduate student and faculty housing. The options are contingent on the outcome of negotiations with Charlesview Apartments.

Graduate and affiliated housing

There is broad agreement among the University community that more graduate, professional and junior faculty housing is needed to accommodate pressing needs and that housing is needed soon. The University overall has a goal to house 50 percent of its graduate and professional school students and individual Schools are striving to meet their own goals.

Such housing in an expensive and tight local housing market is not only critical for Schools striving to attract and retain leading students and scholars, but also for the cities of Cambridge and Boston. By providing more homes for students, local leaders believe area institutions can help relieve pressure on the local housing markets.

Taking such housing needs into consideration, the Cooper, Robertson team developed several concepts for possible sites. These concepts will be further refined over the next year as discussions with faculty and staff and representatives from the surrounding communities progress. Input from students and faculty has been and will continue to be invaluable.

Planning for Allston's physical realm

The Cooper, Robertson team has developed initial concepts that would frame a sense of place for the Allston campus, including street and block pattern, open spaces and special places, transportation and roadways.

Some of these concepts are more fully developed than others because the various underlying program elements are in different stages of development and at an early stage of engagement with the broader community. The Cooper Robertson team will provide initial concepts for building configuration and open space to define the key design issues that will help ensure an integrated public realm and a complementary grouping of buildings. These preliminary concepts will be shared broadly among various groups in the fall.

The Cooper, Robertson planning process acknowledges that program and space needs change over time, and that sites are developed at different points in time. To help guide planning in its various stages, the Cooper Robertson team is working with Harvard to develop design guidelines that will ensure the integrity of the framework plan and harmony among adjacent sites, and leave flexibility to accommodate program shifts, tenant preferences, and architectural expression as these components develop over time.

These draft design guidelines, which will be shared with the Harvard community for comment, will guide the work of architects as projects emerge. The delineation of "First Thoughts" collected from various constituencies (see sidebar Page 5) describes the purpose and importance of this effort: "The architecture and spatial organization of an institution must facilitate the teaching and research enterprise, portray the institution's academic mission, and enhance the quality of life on the campus."

Integration with community goals

Harvard's academic needs and programmatic aspirations drive Allston planning.

For this reason this initial phase of planning has focused on concepts that meet academic needs, facilitate innovation and, to the extent possible, predict space needs far into the future. But as Harvard develops a vision to accommodate its academic and programmatic needs, such concepts will be woven together with wider community goals.

Creating a shared environment that preserves and enhances the surrounding community is an important goal that has been articulated in the "First Thoughts" guidelines for Allston and in the North Allston Neighborhood Strategic Plan, a community-planning effort that has engaged representatives from North Allston, the City of Boston and Harvard over the past four years. Harvard has been an active participant in the development of community goals and aspirations for Harvard in Allston.

In addition to participation in the North Allston Neighborhood Strategic Plan, several recent Harvard-sponsored community meetings have offered a forum for neighborhood residents and city representatives to express their hopes and concerns about future development. This important dialogue will continue as ideas and concepts for an academic campus in Allston are sharpened and move toward a final framework.

As planning progresses, decisions about Allston as a shared place, a place that engages both the University community and the neighborhood of which it is part, will be a critical component of that final framework plan and each future project in Allston. Harvard will propose and present a range of ideas for the Allston community and the City of Boston's consideration as the process progresses.