Harvard Magazine on Harvard expansion

A couple stories about Allston in the new edition of Harvard's alumni magazine. Nothing that qualifies as "breaking news", but there are some interesting insights into Harvard's approach.

http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/09/building-and-buying-a-campus

http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/08/rethinking-allston

But back in Cambridge, there was trouble with the neighbors, as Zeckhauser anticipated. The 259,000-square-foot Center for Government and International Studies, for which planning began in 1995, was not completed until 2005; it had to be completely redesigned more than once to appease community concerns, more than quadrupling its price to a reported $140 million.

The first acquisition [in Allston], of a Sears warehouse site, was completed in 1989. Harvard’s Allston holdings grew from 140 acres in 1994 to 354 today,

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, Prince Charles, a speaker at the University’s 350th celebration, noted in a symposium on urbanization that American universities had been very successful in contributing to the health of their host cities, something he hoped might be transplanted to England. Now, with plenty of space to expand and new plans for business and academic development in Allston, Harvard can hope that the prince’s observations about American universities will come true on its own patch of real estate, across the river.

Construction of housing for Harvard faculty and graduate students near Barry’s Corner is expected to provide swing space for graduate students displaced by the impending undergraduate House renovations.