Farm the Yard (or Allston)

Bill McKibben, a Harvard alum and founder of the climate change advocacy organization 350.org, revives the idea of having Harvard students do some agricultural labor.

Farm the Yard | Harvard Magazine Sep-Oct 2011: "If college is about supplying what’s missing, then it’s time to dig up a good chunk of the Yard and plant a garden."

While it is hard to envision more than a small "demonstration garden" in Harvard Yard, the Allston Farm is one of many interesting ideas for Harvard's underutilized land that is still waiting to come to life. Most of the field behind the Honan Library is now being put to good use as Library Park, but there is still a decent sized strip of field fenced off and unused along the park's north side. Or maybe it could go next to the Business School in a few years when Harvard tears down the old Charlesview.

If Harvard's brains thought more about Boston

Nice column in the Globe about how Harvard and other Boston-area universities might take more interest in what is happening here in their backyard.

Why don’t Boston’s great professors study Boston? - Ideas - The Boston Globe

“If you had 2 to 3 percent of the Harvard faculty being involved in Boston,” said Winship, “that would be a sea change.”

David Manfredi plans Kendall Sq

Harvard is bringing David Manfredi to Allston to plan Barry's Corner, which makes it interesting to look at his ideas for nearby Kendall Square (starts at slide 13).

The goals he identifies are:

• create places that expand the public realm and become a “common ground”

• respect the historic grid and scale of streets

• make more and better connections between community, commercial and academic land uses

• provide building opportunities for innovation tenants

• contribute to an integrated mix of uses in the district

• establish a prominent, welcoming new gateway to the Institute (MIT)

Crimson writes about the past and future of Barry's Corner

After Troubled Past, Barry's Corner in Allston Poised for Development | News | The Harvard Crimson: