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Building Boom
For much of the 1990s, Harvard was busy renewing its physical plant. Most visibly, the Harvard Yard dormitories were refreshed and Memorial Hall was revitalized with a freshman dining area, a basement student commons, and a restored tower.
In the new century, the University faces a new agenda. Driven by ambitious academic plans in virtually every school, the pace will pick up as new research opportunities in many disciplines intersect with Harvard's abundant financial resources.
The most tangible evidence is the huge new building rising at the Medical School (see page 77) that forms the basis for a second medical quadrangle, reflecting the nation's swelling need for biomedical research. In Cambridge, the Bauer Life Sciences Building and its genomics center are already well along in construction. An equivalent physical-sciences facility is in advanced planning. A whole new laboratory and sciences complex is envisioned in the "North Precinct," the area bounded by Oxford, Kirkland, and Hammond Streets.
Nor are other areas of the arts and sciences being neglected. The long-planned center for government and international studies--two buildings that straddle Cambridge Street--continues its progress through local permitting. Significant new museums are also envisioned, both for the arts collections and for the natural and cultural history collections--the former along the Charles River, at Western Avenue, and the latter, in the more distant future, in Allston (see pages 72 and 44).
To improve undergraduate life, modest renovations and reconfigurations are planned in the Houses to free space for more bedrooms. The Malkin Athletic Center is being examined for a potentially major overhaul. The Hasty Pudding building awaits a basement-to-roof renovation for modern theatrical performance space.
Providing more graduate- and professional-student housing is an urgent priority. One new building has been designed at the Western Avenue corner of the Business School campus, but hundreds of additional units are required.
And the list goes on. To reduce first-year class sizes, the Law School's academic plan calls for significant growth in its faculty--requiring more office space, classroom buildings, and technology support. The Kennedy School has overflowed its campus, and hopes to build. And throughout Harvard, academic centers are expanding to study foreign cultures and to accommodate burgeoning interest in executive-education programs on the part of professionals around the world.
Modern technology, which failed to bring about the "paperless office," seems no more likely to bring about a "virtual campus." For the foreseeable future, as President-elect Lawrence H. Summers said at his first news conference on March 11, Harvard has "the resources and the room to innovate and grow as it pursues its mission in a changing world."
