bosdevelopment
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stellarfun said:
They pay 400 dollars a year for every pull box on campus to the fire department. The number of pull boxes is easily in the hundreds.
Harvard - Allston Campus
- Thread starter statler
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They pay 400 dollars a year for every pull box on campus to the fire department. The number of pull boxes is easily in the hundreds.
stellarfun
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singbat said:as much as i dislike community interference with private development in general, there are a couple of things to consider.
one is that harvard has put up some terrible buildings, most of the worst, large. e.g. the Science Center (Land building?) on the far side of the yard, the admin building above Au bon Pain, the Admin building at Law on Mass ave, etc.
.....
got to wonder if the balance is right -- the taxes don't pay the bill for an origination of that size. the institution itself almost does. but it doesn't make up for future crap buildings that will probably get built (hopefully along with some great ones), if there is a chance to put reasonable pressure on the design now.
or am i wildly off base?
There is an article in the Crimson today about the Business School starting science courses for management types, that, in a rather off-handed sentence, mentions that construction of the new life sciences complex in Allston is scheduled to start in June.
As for Harvard's buildings, I think the best thing that could happen to the Science Center would be to hire Christo to drape it with seasonal colors.
These days, I think Harvard, and particularly MIT, tend to hire trophy architects for their new buildings:
For Harvard, the three most recent big new buildings:
Center for Government and International Studies building designed by Henry Cobb; Pei, Cobb, Freed and Partners (New York).
Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering designed by Rafael Moneo (Spain, Pritzker 1995)
Northwest Science Building, Skidmore Owings & Merrill
(The Life Sciences Complex in Allston is being deesigned by Behnisch Architekten from Stuttgart, who also designed the Genzyme building in Cambridge.)
^On universities and trophy architects, see here: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/02/22/starchitecture_on_campus/
But don't forget Stern's Spangler Center at the Harvard Business School. Whatever Stern's fame may be as an architect, the Spangler Center certainly isn't a trophy building. It does it's job very well.
I wonder how much autonomy Harvard's various schools have in designing their own buildings.
But don't forget Stern's Spangler Center at the Harvard Business School. Whatever Stern's fame may be as an architect, the Spangler Center certainly isn't a trophy building. It does it's job very well.
I wonder how much autonomy Harvard's various schools have in designing their own buildings.
stellarfun
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chumbolly said:
I think the different schools have a lot of autonomy, particularly if the school is rich, endowment-wise, and/or is constructing a new building with gift donation(s) from a generous donor(s). It is said that the Science Center is in the shape of a Polaroid camera because Edwin Land gave the money to have it built.
Harvard is heavily de-centralized, some would say dysfunctionally so. Harvard categorizes its management and budgeting system as ETOB, or "Every Tub On Its Own Bottom"; the "tub" being a school, and the "bottom" being its financial base (however rich or poor).
That said, I think the buildings that will be built in Allston for the B School, for Arts and Sciences, Public Health, and Education, will have to comport, in a general way, with the master plan prepared for Allston.
Harvard Crimson article on art museum development
Moving Pictures
Despite obstacles, Harvard museums look forward to Allston
Published On Thursday, March 15, 2007 11:52 PM
By ANNA K. BARNET and LAURA A. MOORE
Crimson Staff Writers
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More than two decades ago, the Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) hatched a plan to build a skybridge between the Arthur M. Sackler Museum and the Fogg Art Museum. Designed to carry people and art, it offered the possibility of a physical link between museums that, although next door to each other, are seperated by more than just Broadway. The bridge never got built, but current plans for renovations and a new museum in Allston will seek to span the gaps in the University?s museums.
Over the years, the University has always grappled with how to reconcile the split identities of its art collection, which now sits in three distinct museums: the Western-focused Fogg, the Central European Busch Reisinger, and the Ancient and Eastern Sackler. Now, HUAM hopes that the University?s expansion into Allston will finally provide it with the space necessary to increase the amount of art that it keeps on display and create a unified image of the museums.
But with the recent postponement of discussions about the proposed art center intended to house the University?s modern and contemporary art collection, with designs still in their early stages, and with community opposition rallied against the project, the future is still uncertain.
MUSEUM MAMBO
The Fogg Art Museum, on 32 Quincy Street, has not changed substantially in the last 80 years. Despite more modern additions such as Werner Otto Hall, home to the Busch-Reisinger Museum, the core of the Fogg is much as it was when first built. The museum has substantial infrastructure issues problematic for its art?including a lack of modern climate control and buckling walls in the Busch-Reisinger?and has long needed renovations.
In 1998, renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano came to Cambridge to design a new art museum on Memorial Drive. Piano, who is also currently working on expansions of the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in Boston and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, won the Pritzer Prize, the architecture world?s highest honor, that same year.
Piano?s two-building project was slated to create gallery space for modern and contemporary art in one building and serve as a new home for the Sackler Museum?s ancient and non-Western collection in the other. But community opposition put an end to the plans. Detractors of the design cited the possibility that its emphasis on drawing large crowds to exhibits might create additional traffic in the area.
The current plans for HUAM involve multiple phases in both Cambridge and Allston, reshuffling the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger and Sackler Museums as buildings and renovations are completed. The project will begin following commencement in June of 2008 with the closing of HUAM?s 32 Quincy Street locale. The Fogg and Busch-Reisinger will effectively move into the Sackler Building for the interim, displaying highlights of each collection in cozy quarters during construction of the new Allston location.
ACROSS THE RIVER
Although the renovation of HUAM?s building on Quincy Street is still early in the conceptual stages, HUAM officials confirm that Renzo Piano will spearhead the renovation.
The cornerstone of the new HUAM will be a cultural center on Barry?s Corner in Allston, designed by architect Kevin Daly. The building will house all three museums until the Fogg is ready to reopen its doors, a date HUAM spokesman Daron Manoogian estimates as sometime in 2013.
However, not all of the art will return to Cambridge. As the rejected 1998 plans testify, HUAM?s modern and contemporary art collection is growing beyond its currently cramped gallery space.
?The Art Museums have been committed to modern and contemporary art since the 1930s, when the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art and the Busch-Reisinger Museum first began mounting exhibitions of contemporary art and acquiring important examples for their collections,? Lentz wrote last year in an e-mail.
?There were no clear plans to develop the necessary facilities to fully exhibit or provide access to many of these works which require larger and more flexible spaces,? Lentz wrote.
But with Allston in sight, Lentz says, ?We are finally at the point at which those facilities are imminent, and we will be able to wholly dedicate ourselves to the exhibition and study of modern and contemporary works.?
Though a few modern and contemporary pieces will still be displayed at 32 Quincy Street, the majority of such works will be sent to Allston permanently.
Kevin Daly, architect for the new arts center, says the Barry?s Corner location will be a positive addition to the neighborhood.
?With that particular setting there are a lot of legitimately high expectations of what it could become,? Daly says.
Citing the need to organize the building in accordance with the museum?s public mission, Daly also emphasized its unique role as a teaching museum. The promised prominence of ?study centers,? where patrons can request and view individual pieces, is one of the clearest manifestations of didactic ambition.
?They provide close, intimate encounters with our works of art,? Manoogian says of the spaces.
The Allston building will also house conservation labs, which Daly compared to a Renaissance studio or Parisian atelier. Both these and the study centers will be visible from the street, relating the activities of the museum to city outside.
The center?s public education program will ideally serve as a cornerstone for its interaction with the neighborhood. Children will be able to paint and draw in a room designed especially for them.
Daly points out that the arts center is inherently one of Harvard?s more public spaces. ?It is one of the only buildings you don?t need a Harvard ID to get into.?
ART IN THE COMMUNITY
But late last month, Harvard?s plans for its art center in the Allston were put on hold.
After a decade of meeting with residents to discuss Harvard?s expansion into Allston, the University released project notifications for a science complex and art center, in addition to a master plan, which forecasts Harvard?s expansion into the area as far into the future as 2057.
Over the last month, Allston residents have expressed concerns in community blogs and at meetings with Harvard officials that the art center?s proposed building on Western Avenue does not fit community needs. Many cited building heights and a roof garden that would boast a view of residents? backyards as main concerns.
Despite Daly?s claim that the art center will be community-focused, Lentz said at the Feb. 12 Harvard-Allston Task Force meeting that HUAM is ?not the MFA,? emphasizing that the museums are not attendance driven.
?What Harvard is saying is that their mission is to allow experts in the field to have close and intimate contact with the works of art,? Harvard-Allston Task Force member Harry Mattison said in an interview in February. ?Because of the difference in their funding structures, they can be as private and insular as they want to.?
And with the overlapping deadlines for comment and review periods for the three projects, University and city officials decided to postpone discussions for the master plan and art museum in order to focus on the science complex.
?Basically what we said to them is this is too much for us to try to digest and absorb and give you feedback on them,? says Harvard-Allston Task Force member and Allston native Paul Berkeley.
Senior Project Manager for the Boston Redevelopment Authority?the city?s agency responsible for development review?also says that the scope of Harvard?s plans was overwhelming.
?I think they realized that it wasn?t in the interest of maintaining a good relationship and building a good long-term relationship to progress with things when people were feeling like they couldn?t keep with the pace,? he says.
Daly also says that delaying the plan will allow the University to fill in the gaps in the current proposal.
?It gives the museum a chance to catch its breath and verify a lot of the internal details before re-initiating the public process,? he says.
Manoogian says that while HUAM has not had much of an opportunity to speak with the community about what the museum will do, he is confident that they will come to an agreement. ?The more they start to learn about us and what we have to offer, they?ll be glad to have the arts center in their community.?
And Berkeley said that the community concerns do not stem from dissatisfaction with the general idea of erecting an art museum in his neighborhood.
?It?s never been a location that the community has had any access to,? he said, speaking of Barry?s Corner. ?It?s been rough and industrial and if it ended up a museum, I don?t think that?s a bad thing.?
?Staff writer Anna K. Barnet can be reached at abarnet@fas.harvard.edu. ?Staff writer Laura A. Moore can be reached at lamoore@fas.harvard.edu.
Moving Pictures
Despite obstacles, Harvard museums look forward to Allston
Published On Thursday, March 15, 2007 11:52 PM
By ANNA K. BARNET and LAURA A. MOORE
Crimson Staff Writers
ARTICLE TOOLS:
E-mail this Article
Printer Friendly Version
Write a Letter to the Editor
More than two decades ago, the Harvard University Art Museums (HUAM) hatched a plan to build a skybridge between the Arthur M. Sackler Museum and the Fogg Art Museum. Designed to carry people and art, it offered the possibility of a physical link between museums that, although next door to each other, are seperated by more than just Broadway. The bridge never got built, but current plans for renovations and a new museum in Allston will seek to span the gaps in the University?s museums.
Over the years, the University has always grappled with how to reconcile the split identities of its art collection, which now sits in three distinct museums: the Western-focused Fogg, the Central European Busch Reisinger, and the Ancient and Eastern Sackler. Now, HUAM hopes that the University?s expansion into Allston will finally provide it with the space necessary to increase the amount of art that it keeps on display and create a unified image of the museums.
But with the recent postponement of discussions about the proposed art center intended to house the University?s modern and contemporary art collection, with designs still in their early stages, and with community opposition rallied against the project, the future is still uncertain.
MUSEUM MAMBO
The Fogg Art Museum, on 32 Quincy Street, has not changed substantially in the last 80 years. Despite more modern additions such as Werner Otto Hall, home to the Busch-Reisinger Museum, the core of the Fogg is much as it was when first built. The museum has substantial infrastructure issues problematic for its art?including a lack of modern climate control and buckling walls in the Busch-Reisinger?and has long needed renovations.
In 1998, renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano came to Cambridge to design a new art museum on Memorial Drive. Piano, who is also currently working on expansions of the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum in Boston and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, won the Pritzer Prize, the architecture world?s highest honor, that same year.
Piano?s two-building project was slated to create gallery space for modern and contemporary art in one building and serve as a new home for the Sackler Museum?s ancient and non-Western collection in the other. But community opposition put an end to the plans. Detractors of the design cited the possibility that its emphasis on drawing large crowds to exhibits might create additional traffic in the area.
The current plans for HUAM involve multiple phases in both Cambridge and Allston, reshuffling the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger and Sackler Museums as buildings and renovations are completed. The project will begin following commencement in June of 2008 with the closing of HUAM?s 32 Quincy Street locale. The Fogg and Busch-Reisinger will effectively move into the Sackler Building for the interim, displaying highlights of each collection in cozy quarters during construction of the new Allston location.
ACROSS THE RIVER
Although the renovation of HUAM?s building on Quincy Street is still early in the conceptual stages, HUAM officials confirm that Renzo Piano will spearhead the renovation.
The cornerstone of the new HUAM will be a cultural center on Barry?s Corner in Allston, designed by architect Kevin Daly. The building will house all three museums until the Fogg is ready to reopen its doors, a date HUAM spokesman Daron Manoogian estimates as sometime in 2013.
However, not all of the art will return to Cambridge. As the rejected 1998 plans testify, HUAM?s modern and contemporary art collection is growing beyond its currently cramped gallery space.
?The Art Museums have been committed to modern and contemporary art since the 1930s, when the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art and the Busch-Reisinger Museum first began mounting exhibitions of contemporary art and acquiring important examples for their collections,? Lentz wrote last year in an e-mail.
?There were no clear plans to develop the necessary facilities to fully exhibit or provide access to many of these works which require larger and more flexible spaces,? Lentz wrote.
But with Allston in sight, Lentz says, ?We are finally at the point at which those facilities are imminent, and we will be able to wholly dedicate ourselves to the exhibition and study of modern and contemporary works.?
Though a few modern and contemporary pieces will still be displayed at 32 Quincy Street, the majority of such works will be sent to Allston permanently.
Kevin Daly, architect for the new arts center, says the Barry?s Corner location will be a positive addition to the neighborhood.
?With that particular setting there are a lot of legitimately high expectations of what it could become,? Daly says.
Citing the need to organize the building in accordance with the museum?s public mission, Daly also emphasized its unique role as a teaching museum. The promised prominence of ?study centers,? where patrons can request and view individual pieces, is one of the clearest manifestations of didactic ambition.
?They provide close, intimate encounters with our works of art,? Manoogian says of the spaces.
The Allston building will also house conservation labs, which Daly compared to a Renaissance studio or Parisian atelier. Both these and the study centers will be visible from the street, relating the activities of the museum to city outside.
The center?s public education program will ideally serve as a cornerstone for its interaction with the neighborhood. Children will be able to paint and draw in a room designed especially for them.
Daly points out that the arts center is inherently one of Harvard?s more public spaces. ?It is one of the only buildings you don?t need a Harvard ID to get into.?
ART IN THE COMMUNITY
But late last month, Harvard?s plans for its art center in the Allston were put on hold.
After a decade of meeting with residents to discuss Harvard?s expansion into Allston, the University released project notifications for a science complex and art center, in addition to a master plan, which forecasts Harvard?s expansion into the area as far into the future as 2057.
Over the last month, Allston residents have expressed concerns in community blogs and at meetings with Harvard officials that the art center?s proposed building on Western Avenue does not fit community needs. Many cited building heights and a roof garden that would boast a view of residents? backyards as main concerns.
Despite Daly?s claim that the art center will be community-focused, Lentz said at the Feb. 12 Harvard-Allston Task Force meeting that HUAM is ?not the MFA,? emphasizing that the museums are not attendance driven.
?What Harvard is saying is that their mission is to allow experts in the field to have close and intimate contact with the works of art,? Harvard-Allston Task Force member Harry Mattison said in an interview in February. ?Because of the difference in their funding structures, they can be as private and insular as they want to.?
And with the overlapping deadlines for comment and review periods for the three projects, University and city officials decided to postpone discussions for the master plan and art museum in order to focus on the science complex.
?Basically what we said to them is this is too much for us to try to digest and absorb and give you feedback on them,? says Harvard-Allston Task Force member and Allston native Paul Berkeley.
Senior Project Manager for the Boston Redevelopment Authority?the city?s agency responsible for development review?also says that the scope of Harvard?s plans was overwhelming.
?I think they realized that it wasn?t in the interest of maintaining a good relationship and building a good long-term relationship to progress with things when people were feeling like they couldn?t keep with the pace,? he says.
Daly also says that delaying the plan will allow the University to fill in the gaps in the current proposal.
?It gives the museum a chance to catch its breath and verify a lot of the internal details before re-initiating the public process,? he says.
Manoogian says that while HUAM has not had much of an opportunity to speak with the community about what the museum will do, he is confident that they will come to an agreement. ?The more they start to learn about us and what we have to offer, they?ll be glad to have the arts center in their community.?
And Berkeley said that the community concerns do not stem from dissatisfaction with the general idea of erecting an art museum in his neighborhood.
?It?s never been a location that the community has had any access to,? he said, speaking of Barry?s Corner. ?It?s been rough and industrial and if it ended up a museum, I don?t think that?s a bad thing.?
?Staff writer Anna K. Barnet can be reached at abarnet@fas.harvard.edu. ?Staff writer Laura A. Moore can be reached at lamoore@fas.harvard.edu.
stellarfun
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Re: Harvard Crimson article on art museum development
In an earlier Crimson article on Harvard's museums, there was mention that the endowment of Harvard's museums is $575 million, that only one percent of the collection is on view, and that the museums acquire 3,000 new pieces of art every year. (I think the endowment may be larger than that of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)
If one assumes that half of a 15 percent annual return on the endowment is used for museum operations (the other half being reinvested) and half of the operations funding is used for new acquisitions, thats $20-25 million a year just to buy new stuff that won't go on display without new galleries being built.
On a side note, perhaps no truer reflection of the dysfunctional amalgamation of educational baronies that comprise Harvard University is an article in the current Crimson that Harvard University (the corporation) paid rent to the Faculty of Arts of Sciences for space used by the President of Harvard and other senior university officials for their offices in Massachusetts Hall. The University did not own the building, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences did. How quaint. How anachronistic. How absurd.
JS38 said:
In an earlier Crimson article on Harvard's museums, there was mention that the endowment of Harvard's museums is $575 million, that only one percent of the collection is on view, and that the museums acquire 3,000 new pieces of art every year. (I think the endowment may be larger than that of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)
If one assumes that half of a 15 percent annual return on the endowment is used for museum operations (the other half being reinvested) and half of the operations funding is used for new acquisitions, thats $20-25 million a year just to buy new stuff that won't go on display without new galleries being built.
On a side note, perhaps no truer reflection of the dysfunctional amalgamation of educational baronies that comprise Harvard University is an article in the current Crimson that Harvard University (the corporation) paid rent to the Faculty of Arts of Sciences for space used by the President of Harvard and other senior university officials for their offices in Massachusetts Hall. The University did not own the building, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences did. How quaint. How anachronistic. How absurd.
^not to get side tracked, but recently (a year ago maybe) Harvard Law School purchased land from the University to build its new residential quad. It's strange that the university has to buy things from itself, but each school is extremely autonomous, just like when a state buys land from the Federal gov't.
Re: Harvard Crimson article on art museum development
if they weren't so off-beat, they'd probably be more off-putting...
anyway, in the grand scheme of things, i'm all for boston housing world class collections, even if at the moment they aren't well displayed. can hope for better to come.
stellarfun said:
if they weren't so off-beat, they'd probably be more off-putting...
anyway, in the grand scheme of things, i'm all for boston housing world class collections, even if at the moment they aren't well displayed. can hope for better to come.
palindrome
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what if harvard was to build a museum on the greenway? Maybe where the garden under glass was supposed to go?
palindrome
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true, but how often do student really use the museum? I know for my school (bc), hardly anyone (student wise) uses it often- (in fact, i think i have used harvards more!) And yes i know, harvard's museum is in a whole different league, i'm sure the argument still has some vague sense of weight.
Don't get me wrong either, I know harvard should cater to its students first and most of all and as a tuition paying student, I completely agree with that, but if the space is available, and Harvard has/is really taking in the amount of work they are, then i think something could be worked out. This would be one of the benefits that boston residents seem entilted too.
Either way, I am happy that harvard plans on building a new museum!!
Don't get me wrong either, I know harvard should cater to its students first and most of all and as a tuition paying student, I completely agree with that, but if the space is available, and Harvard has/is really taking in the amount of work they are, then i think something could be worked out. This would be one of the benefits that boston residents seem entilted too.
Either way, I am happy that harvard plans on building a new museum!!
Crimson Tide
Campus is just one part of Harvard's Allston plans
Boston Business Journal - April 20, 2007
by Brian Kladko
Journal staff
Harvard University plans to do more than create a campus in Allston over the next 50 years. It also wants to transform the rest of the neighborhood.
How? By owning a good chunk of it
The university, having made clear in January what the boundaries of its Allston campus will be and what it hopes to build there, has yet to make clear what it will do with most of the 40 acres it owns beyond that, in an area stretching west down Western Avenue and south toward the Massachusetts Turnpike.
Some of the possible uses for those off-campus parcels could be housing for faculty and graduate students, offices and labs for technology companies, or stores and restaurants. But one way or another, Harvard is going into the development business.
Although those off-campus properties taken together are about the size of Boston Common, Harvard says it's continuing to look for Allston parcels in that area. In December, it paid $16 million for a hulking, empty 450,000-square-foot building along the Pike once dubbed the "Boston Tech Center." On a smaller scale, it recently bought a kennel and veterinary clinic. Both of them are about a half-mile from Barry's Corner, the intersection that will mark the western edge of the new campus.
Harvard continues to pursue this strategy with the city's blessing. Officials with the Boston Redevelopment Authority say they oppose institutional "land-banking" -- the acquisition of properties with no particular use in mind -- but hope that Harvard's consolidation of parcels will facilitate a renewal of the neighborhood sketched out in 2005.
"While we would never encourage Harvard or any other institution to acquire property simply for the purpose of land-banking it, it's not a terrible situation ... to be dealing with a smaller number of landowners as we talk about redevelopment of this whole area," said Gerald Autler, the BRA senior project manager assigned to Harvard's expansion into Allston. "We have a vision here that needs to be fleshed out and implemented. ... We can think of all sorts of ways we can work collaboratively with Harvard and ask them to use their assets -- whether it's property or other assets -- to help transform this vision into reality."
That is Harvard's reasoning as well. The university, said Kathy Spiegelman, chief planner for Harvard's Allston expansion, has an interest in improving the neighborhood just beyond its campus. It wants to transform Western Avenue's automobile-dependent hodgepodge of drab buildings, convenience stores and warehouse-like buildings into a lively and pedestrian-friendly retail district while also adding opportunities for new housing and companies.
"We have the potential to be really good stewards of property," she said. She added, "I think most people, if you go on Western Avenue, would agree that there are lots of opportunities for improvements. And the message I hear from people in the community and business people is, 'Get to it. Don't let it languish.' "
Responding to community anxiety about the increasing number of vacant buildings under Harvard's name, the university has decided to increase the length of leases it offers for commercial tenants to as much as 10 years. Although Harvard said it doesn't have any signed leases, the BRA's Autler said Finale Dessert Co. is looking to occupy a space for its headquarters, bakery operation and storefront, and Abe Goldstein Office Furniture is planning to rent a building for storage.
But Harvard's longer-term plans for its off-campus properties will likely wait until the university's Allston campus takes shape.
Harvard officials say they chose to focus on the eastern portion of Allston because its holdings there are contiguous. Within those 220 acres, the university hopes to build 9 million to 10 million square feet of academic buildings, housing, athletic facilities, arts and culture facilities, and open space over the next 50 years. That master plan is now being reviewed by the BRA, which is soliciting comments from the public until June. Harvard also is seeking separate approval for the first building, a 500,000-square-foot science complex.
Residents, too, seem more focused for now on the campus plan, with some complaining about the height of the proposed science complex, the size of an art museum the university wants to erect at Barry's Corner and a new road the university wants to build. But some community members are anxious to hear about Harvard's off-campus plans, too.
"It would be nice to sort of fold the two of them together," said Liz Browne, the director of development for the Joseph F. Smith Community Health Center, a tenant of Harvard's just west of Barry's Corner. "Because they're led by the same institution and affecting the same group of people in the neighborhood, it would be nice to integrate those two discussions to have a richer, fuller discussion of what the neighborhood is going to look like."
Harvard does have a plan for part of its off-campus holdings. On a site occupied by an empty Kmart, Harvard hopes to relocate the occupants of the Charlesview Apartments, an affordable housing complex the university has offered to buy from the nonprofit organization that owns it.
That project, said Tom Miller, the BRA's director of economic development, is an example of how Harvard's noninstitutional properties could benefit the community, providing new homes for businesses and organizations displaced by Harvard's new campus. And, if the deal goes through, Spiegelman said it could serve as the cornerstone for redeveloping adjacent properties.
Harvard's Spiegelman said the university has no intention of relinquishing its off-campus properties, though it might work with developers in long-term leases.
"We're looking at the trade-offs between third-party development and Harvard doing it itself," she said. "Harvard typically doesn't sell property; the institution buys it. So one of the limitations is how long would we be willing to ground-lease a property to a developer ... as opposed to us thinking we might want the flexibility down the road to have it back."
The Boston Tech Center, also known as the "Cabot, Cabot & Forbes building" for its former owner, is as good an example as any of the task awaiting Harvard. Spiegelman called it a "total shell."
"In order for somebody to go in there, you'd have to really make a substantial, substantial investment," she said.
Miller envisions that building filled with highly-paid workers, working for a company or institute drawn to the site's proximity to Harvard's new campus. Although he said Harvard's noninstitutional acquisitions don't bother him yet, "we want job creation from what they do."
Harvard isn't the only university delving into off-campus community development. The University of Pennsylvania plans to revitalize 40 acres on the edge of its campus, with plans for office towers, condos, research centers and retail establishments. Closer to home, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology turned the former Simplex Wire & Cable Co. factory into University Park, a 27-acre research and office complex on its western edge, which it developed in a joint venture with Forest City Enterprises. It also developed Technology Square, a 1.1 million-square-foot life sciences complex near Kendall Square.
Link
Campus is just one part of Harvard's Allston plans
Boston Business Journal - April 20, 2007
by Brian Kladko
Journal staff
Harvard University plans to do more than create a campus in Allston over the next 50 years. It also wants to transform the rest of the neighborhood.
How? By owning a good chunk of it
The university, having made clear in January what the boundaries of its Allston campus will be and what it hopes to build there, has yet to make clear what it will do with most of the 40 acres it owns beyond that, in an area stretching west down Western Avenue and south toward the Massachusetts Turnpike.
Some of the possible uses for those off-campus parcels could be housing for faculty and graduate students, offices and labs for technology companies, or stores and restaurants. But one way or another, Harvard is going into the development business.
Although those off-campus properties taken together are about the size of Boston Common, Harvard says it's continuing to look for Allston parcels in that area. In December, it paid $16 million for a hulking, empty 450,000-square-foot building along the Pike once dubbed the "Boston Tech Center." On a smaller scale, it recently bought a kennel and veterinary clinic. Both of them are about a half-mile from Barry's Corner, the intersection that will mark the western edge of the new campus.
Harvard continues to pursue this strategy with the city's blessing. Officials with the Boston Redevelopment Authority say they oppose institutional "land-banking" -- the acquisition of properties with no particular use in mind -- but hope that Harvard's consolidation of parcels will facilitate a renewal of the neighborhood sketched out in 2005.
"While we would never encourage Harvard or any other institution to acquire property simply for the purpose of land-banking it, it's not a terrible situation ... to be dealing with a smaller number of landowners as we talk about redevelopment of this whole area," said Gerald Autler, the BRA senior project manager assigned to Harvard's expansion into Allston. "We have a vision here that needs to be fleshed out and implemented. ... We can think of all sorts of ways we can work collaboratively with Harvard and ask them to use their assets -- whether it's property or other assets -- to help transform this vision into reality."
That is Harvard's reasoning as well. The university, said Kathy Spiegelman, chief planner for Harvard's Allston expansion, has an interest in improving the neighborhood just beyond its campus. It wants to transform Western Avenue's automobile-dependent hodgepodge of drab buildings, convenience stores and warehouse-like buildings into a lively and pedestrian-friendly retail district while also adding opportunities for new housing and companies.
"We have the potential to be really good stewards of property," she said. She added, "I think most people, if you go on Western Avenue, would agree that there are lots of opportunities for improvements. And the message I hear from people in the community and business people is, 'Get to it. Don't let it languish.' "
Responding to community anxiety about the increasing number of vacant buildings under Harvard's name, the university has decided to increase the length of leases it offers for commercial tenants to as much as 10 years. Although Harvard said it doesn't have any signed leases, the BRA's Autler said Finale Dessert Co. is looking to occupy a space for its headquarters, bakery operation and storefront, and Abe Goldstein Office Furniture is planning to rent a building for storage.
But Harvard's longer-term plans for its off-campus properties will likely wait until the university's Allston campus takes shape.
Harvard officials say they chose to focus on the eastern portion of Allston because its holdings there are contiguous. Within those 220 acres, the university hopes to build 9 million to 10 million square feet of academic buildings, housing, athletic facilities, arts and culture facilities, and open space over the next 50 years. That master plan is now being reviewed by the BRA, which is soliciting comments from the public until June. Harvard also is seeking separate approval for the first building, a 500,000-square-foot science complex.
Residents, too, seem more focused for now on the campus plan, with some complaining about the height of the proposed science complex, the size of an art museum the university wants to erect at Barry's Corner and a new road the university wants to build. But some community members are anxious to hear about Harvard's off-campus plans, too.
"It would be nice to sort of fold the two of them together," said Liz Browne, the director of development for the Joseph F. Smith Community Health Center, a tenant of Harvard's just west of Barry's Corner. "Because they're led by the same institution and affecting the same group of people in the neighborhood, it would be nice to integrate those two discussions to have a richer, fuller discussion of what the neighborhood is going to look like."
Harvard does have a plan for part of its off-campus holdings. On a site occupied by an empty Kmart, Harvard hopes to relocate the occupants of the Charlesview Apartments, an affordable housing complex the university has offered to buy from the nonprofit organization that owns it.
That project, said Tom Miller, the BRA's director of economic development, is an example of how Harvard's noninstitutional properties could benefit the community, providing new homes for businesses and organizations displaced by Harvard's new campus. And, if the deal goes through, Spiegelman said it could serve as the cornerstone for redeveloping adjacent properties.
Harvard's Spiegelman said the university has no intention of relinquishing its off-campus properties, though it might work with developers in long-term leases.
"We're looking at the trade-offs between third-party development and Harvard doing it itself," she said. "Harvard typically doesn't sell property; the institution buys it. So one of the limitations is how long would we be willing to ground-lease a property to a developer ... as opposed to us thinking we might want the flexibility down the road to have it back."
The Boston Tech Center, also known as the "Cabot, Cabot & Forbes building" for its former owner, is as good an example as any of the task awaiting Harvard. Spiegelman called it a "total shell."
"In order for somebody to go in there, you'd have to really make a substantial, substantial investment," she said.
Miller envisions that building filled with highly-paid workers, working for a company or institute drawn to the site's proximity to Harvard's new campus. Although he said Harvard's noninstitutional acquisitions don't bother him yet, "we want job creation from what they do."
Harvard isn't the only university delving into off-campus community development. The University of Pennsylvania plans to revitalize 40 acres on the edge of its campus, with plans for office towers, condos, research centers and retail establishments. Closer to home, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology turned the former Simplex Wire & Cable Co. factory into University Park, a 27-acre research and office complex on its western edge, which it developed in a joint venture with Forest City Enterprises. It also developed Technology Square, a 1.1 million-square-foot life sciences complex near Kendall Square.
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stellarfun
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Why the current residents of Allston sometimes fear change. There will come a time when they can no longer afford to live there.
From the recent Globe article on the percentage of people by zip code who reported >$100,000 in income on their 2004 tax returns:
Allston: 3 percent
Cambridge: 20 percent
Some Allston residents continue to object to the science complex.
From The Crimson of April, 2007
The current (April 2007) renderings for the Science Complex can be found here. I don't know how one resident came up with a claim of a 200 foot high building.
http://www.allston.harvard.edu/pres...ence Complex Design Development_4-9-07-v2.pdf
From the recent Globe article on the percentage of people by zip code who reported >$100,000 in income on their 2004 tax returns:
Allston: 3 percent
Cambridge: 20 percent
Some Allston residents continue to object to the science complex.
From The Crimson of April, 2007
The current (April 2007) renderings for the Science Complex can be found here. I don't know how one resident came up with a claim of a 200 foot high building.
http://www.allston.harvard.edu/pres...ence Complex Design Development_4-9-07-v2.pdf
stellarfun
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It looks like the Science complex is pretty much a go for construction start this Fall. The remaining question appears to be what bennies does Harvard bestow on the residents of North Allston. I've bolded the laundry list.
From the Harvard Crimson (April 26).
From the Harvard Crimson (April 26).
Holy crap. I have a laundry list of demands too. I want free parking in front of my apartment, a new car every year, access to all of the dining halls at any time, free degrees in any field that Harvard offers without the usual requirements, occasional trips to the moon via the Harvard Shuttle, oh, and I really want those M&M's.
Harvard is improving a really crappy area - that is the benefit.
Harvard is improving a really crappy area - that is the benefit.
stellarfun
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This document dates from 1990, but Appendix D of the [Cambridge] Mayor's Committee on University-Community Relationships details what Harvard, MIT, and several other schools of higher education were providing the City of Cambridge and its residents.
http://www.cambridgema.gov/~CDD/cp/tg/towngownreport.pdf
Among a long list of bennies provided Cambridge residents, Harvard is credited with having built a public library, which is leased to the city at $1 a year.
The North Allston laundry list seems oh so whats-in-it-for-me parochial.
Mr rash speculation on what Harvard might agree to for bennies:
>New public park(s): Probably, provided the City maintains them.
>Full scholarships: Probably, but more likely for Boston residents writ large, and not limited to Allston. if Allston got scholarship monies, they might be used to attend other college.
>Access to university shuttles: No. Harvard is not a public transit agency.
>Access to athletic facilities: Probably, but limited to special events or competitions. Harvard is not the community gym for North Allston.
>Subsidized daycare slots: No. Unless the parent works for Harvard.
>Creating and sponsoring a new school: Possibly. Provided it is part of the city school system.
http://www.cambridgema.gov/~CDD/cp/tg/towngownreport.pdf
Among a long list of bennies provided Cambridge residents, Harvard is credited with having built a public library, which is leased to the city at $1 a year.
The North Allston laundry list seems oh so whats-in-it-for-me parochial.
Mr rash speculation on what Harvard might agree to for bennies:
>New public park(s): Probably, provided the City maintains them.
>Full scholarships: Probably, but more likely for Boston residents writ large, and not limited to Allston. if Allston got scholarship monies, they might be used to attend other college.
>Access to university shuttles: No. Harvard is not a public transit agency.
>Access to athletic facilities: Probably, but limited to special events or competitions. Harvard is not the community gym for North Allston.
>Subsidized daycare slots: No. Unless the parent works for Harvard.
>Creating and sponsoring a new school: Possibly. Provided it is part of the city school system.