Could that just be because they aren't "commuting", though?
I hadn't understood quite what Harvard was doing here - I thought the point of greenfielding SEAS was to consolidate functions. I get that they want classes to be convenient, but if Harvard intends for a Kendall-style innovation campus to grow around this building, how does isolating undergraduates from it make sense? Also, if you make professors commute to/from Harvard Square to teach, that just gives them an incentive to get out of doing it (and to hold inconvenient/very strict office hours).
This entire scheme just seems a little under-cooked to me, and it seriously de-values undergraduate teaching in favor of research. If I were a high schooler applying to schools, this would send me a message (yes, it's HARVARD, but...)
Back in the day, the science complex was to be built in two phases. The first phase, where it is now, and a second, to the west of it along Western Ave. to Travis St. The original idea was to have Harvard's stem cell institute be located in phase 1, but when the overall project was delayed, Harvard renovated at great expense one of the Cambridge science buildings, and put stem cell in it.
So its a case of continually moving parts, and getting buy-in from carious departments in several of the Schools to move to Allston.
At one time, Public Health was to move from greatly overcrowded space in Longwood to Allston, but no indication that will ever happen. Allston initially had more of a biological sciences / pharma focus, less so now.
This is the current division.
Allston
Computer science (including Computational Science & Engineering, IACS, CRCS)
Robotics, mechanics, foundry prototyping
Translational life sciences/bio-engineering
Soft condensed matter
Wyss Institute Cambridge platforms (Wyss is also bio-engineering)
Soft materials
Cambridge
Environmental science & engineering
Nano-technology
Hard condensed matter
Hard materials
Electrical engineering
Applied mathematics
I don't know what the plans are for Dworkin (in Cambridge) which was built with a Gates/Ballmer gift.