Sep '06 - Dec '09
Harvard, the behemoth with many heads, is moving to Allston, that much seems to be clear. As to how and when it does it, who moves there, what type of community it creates, and its relationship to its neighbors, no one seems to be quite sure. Will Harvard be a literal ivory tower separated from its surroundings, or will they follow a more friendly and open approach? Will the question be dodged by just moving the river, as a GSD professor proposed?
It is that last part, the relationship to its neighbors, that a group of very active Allston residents are trying to influence. They are helping Harvard keep in mind that their actions have real and sometimes unexpected consequences on a community. Harvard owns large plots of land, if it is not careful the community around can die. One can only understand if the local community is a bit wary, as Harvard's first steps have not been very successful. The Business school is a virtual minimum security prison, I am not even sure how one goes about getting in there.
Recently, Izabela and I joined a group of (mostly design) students from the GSD and MIT that are trying to help those residents. I think we are still really thinking about what our specific role should be (mediators, advocates?), but it is clear that the local student bodies should be more involved as the University moves to Allston. During our first meeting a local resident said that he is excited to have us be part of the process because they probably emphasize in school the impact of a building design on an entire local community as part of the design process, I truly wish that I didn't have had to correct him...
Right now the entire process is focusing on the first Harvard building that is going up, a Benisch designed "green" science building. It looks and sounds like it will be a great building but the struggle is for the type of community it will make. Will it be a typical off putting office building, or will it embrace and engage the local community? Is such an embrace part of sustainability? It seems to me that this question is one that is at the heart of today's urban movements: how to make a community. From new-urbanism-only-in-looks developments, to office park suburbanism, architects and planners seem to mostly be punting on that question.
More to come...
LINKS:
Allston Community Blog
Harvard Allston Initiative
Benisch Proposal (PDF)
Harvard Crimson: Taking Over the Neighborhood, Then and Now
Harvard Crimson: The Allston Vision
IMAGES:
Harvard Plans in Allston
Plan of Science Building
Benisch Renderings of Science Building:
20 Comments
It's very interesting how the very moment a university decides to expand its physical holdings, some type of ideological barrier or line has been crossed. Think of Columbia University's recent ULURP (Uniform Land Use Reform Procedure) regarding its proposed expansion, or even Yale's less-than-subtle efforts to be involved in urban/infrastructural planning initiatives in China ... of course, such initiatives are the bread and butter of large, well-endowed universities. And of course, we all know that universities tend not to be the friendliest of landlords.
But one wonders if a university's shift into physical planning, into negotiations with community leaders, and in the case of Columbia and Yale, local politics and international diplomacy ... is this a good way for universities to behave? People bemoan Enron's or Google's excesses ... but what about the educational institutions we are so fond of?
Q,
I haven't checked your blog in a while and next thing i know there are two posts....
I hope to address the quote below in my post and discussion thread which i will be posting before the week is over.
"Will it be a typical off putting office building, or will it embrace and engage the local community? Is such an embrace part of sustainability? It seems to me that this question is one that is at the heart of today's urban movements: how to make a community. From new-urbanism-only-in-looks developments, to office park suburbanism, architects and planners seem to mostly be punting on that question."
It is a shame that schools don't emphasize the real impact of the built environment. Although i suspect some schools do just not perhaps architecture-design schools.
It is here i think that some of "Tommy's" comments were enlighting..
Also i think it is awesome that you are getting involved like this...Dare i say politically active?
nice to have this post immediately following the one about moving out of peabody...
if i remember correctly, peabody towers are one of the big reasons why neighborhoods in the area fear boston- the towers broke up a local neighborhood and basically behaved like bad neighbors- very menacing, isolated, completely out of scale, etc.
check out:
alex ulam, "harvard inc." metropolis magazine (february 2001) pp.50-55
better yet:
harvard inc.
harvard inc. that's cute, but when you get right down to it, university's are nothing more than big money organisms similar to the enrons and googles. the only real difference i can see it that they are more physically tied to a place whereas as enron or google can have a more ephemeral impact in the fabric of city's & neighborhoods.
off the cuff, you'd think that the long term interests of a university's place within a community would be to the benefit of the community...trouble is that these university's just keep expanding and getting bigger. i can't help but wonder why? i understand that many people are clamoring to go to school at harvard but other than that i'm somewhat at a loss as to what aspect of education as changed so drastically that we need to keep building more laboratories, classrooms, and studios?
puddles, it seems at times that expansion is a trophy of a sort. The more buildings you have, the better University you must be.
But in their defense, Harvard is building over what now are mostly empty parking lots and warehouses. That is not to say that there isn't some displacement, but in balance it COULD be a positive for the community. The argument, as I understand it, is not that Harvard shouldn't move there. The argument is that the process should be more transparent and inclusive, as should be the final community that Harvard creates.
@ puddles,
Perhaps that is whu we need virtual educational spaces.
I to feel similarly.
I went to U of F and in the last ten years they have grown increasingly money oriented. It seems as if even state schools which were meant to provide a good cheap education for citizens ar enow more interested in ranking and public profile than actual teaching per se.
florida is a red state...which likely contributes to the phenomenon you describe, nam, at least in the case of UF or other florida institutions.
even if those lots are empty, i'm not sure that it's better to have larger universities...or maybe larger campuses would be more accurate. there must be some point when a univ campus becomes too large to simply walk across and additional transit options such as buses are needed. moreover, university buildings tend not to be multi-use structures and usually lack a diversity of tenants. collectively at some scale this must start to turn campuses into relative dead zones where use is dominated by a single class of people, i.e., students.
maybe more, smaller campuses would be better than a single large ones (although to some extent, i guess that's what harvard is doing by crossing the river)...and more carefully integrated into city context. is there really any reason that all those large research or medical buildings that are popping up at schools across the country couldn't have lease paying retail on the first floor?
hey puddles er...did you realize that was a link to an article saying more or less what you're saying, not just me giving harvard a cute nickname?
Seems like Harvard cannot get it right in other parts of the city either. In the News.
its a shame - the old campus is so finely woven into harvard square, you would hope it was on purpose and not accidental... the new neighborhood, at least past the vacant lots, is not so dissimilar from what they are already working with, altho I heard that it wasn't the same people.
on the issue of expansion, I'd have to say, if we can applaud the expansion of anything, it would be space for learning.
but im a nerd, so I think that's biased.
wow, I completely disagree about the integration of the old campus.
ya, i've only been there once, but i recall a huge cast-iron fence and stone walls seperating campus from the square...not exactly woven.
Not to mention the buildings arranged at the exterior of the campus lawns, protecting and enclosing the lawns themselves (and keeping others pointedly OUT)... the urban design NIGHTMARE that is the surrounding street map... you can't cross any of the roads enclosing the campus, each road is either far too tight or far too oddly wide and uncomfortably scaled, once you get onto the harvard green you don't know how to find your way out, or to the appropriate building or street... not to mention the psychological wall the University maintains between itself and the locals not affiliated with the school in some way. Ugh. Worst town/gown relations ever. The only reason people don't talk about it more is that like 90% of Cambridge is in fact affiliated somehow with the University. The rest of us, however...
sorry for the rant, it's a late night for me. I'll probably regret this tomorrow. I did want to say something intelligent on here however about how the biggest bar to Harvard's integration into the fabric of Allston will be a psychological one, and not a physical.
well the school is everywhere... the iron gates & masonry walls are only around the ugrad dorms, and during the day pedestrian access is totally open.. right now one of the city's sidewalks is closed & everyone is directed through the yard.
But the school's buildings are everywhere in the square, and they also manage a lot of properties that house small businesses that would be driven out by high rents without Harvard's protection...
and, for sure, the traffic can seem scary, and the streets are irregular, is that really a bad thing? thats one of the reasons I love harvard square, there is so much variety. I agree, it seems like total chaos if you are used to orderly, modern places like most of America.
its a great point that the phychological intergration with allston will be the biggest challenge, I hope they can pull it off but don't really see how they could. All lower allston wants is for nothing to change, and its going to gentrify like crazy.
ps I have no affiliation w harvard (besides free lectures), and I've been going to the square since I was 14 so I know it in a very non-objective way...
wow thats way too long. sorry.
is the brattle street theatre still there?
yeah...
http://www.brattlefilm.org
conormac,
I would like to try to change the impression that people in Allston don't want anything to change. Personally, I think there is a lot of great change that could happen here and many of my neighbors feel the same way. None of us like having Western Ave lined with vacant Harvard-owned buildings. We also think Harvard and the community could benefit from something other than a new inward-facing research campus that is empty on evenings and weekends when people have left the labs and classrooms for the day.
For another perspective, take a look at this article by a Harvard professor about two alternative futures for Harvard's Allston campus.
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=519239
People who are interested in keeping up on what is happening can join our Google Group at http://groups.google.com/group/HarvardNeighborsForum
Harry