The view of Harvard, from Harvard

Harvard is occasionally accused of being too insular and inward-focused, and images like this in Harvard's new Master Plan only reinforce that perception.

If Harvard really cares about the view from the Eliot House Tower in Cambridge to Baker Library on the HBS campus in Allston, that is certainly their prerogative. To me it seems like a strange priority. The tower's Celtic green cupola and gilded accents are lovely to look at, but how many people ever climb the tower to gaze across the Charles at Allston?

This is also an amazing image to submit to the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the residents of Allston/Brighton. Where are the new visual and architectural focal points that Harvard plans to build in Allston? What new view corridors does Harvard plan to build to visually connect the Allston community with the new Harvard Allston campus? Apparently there are few, if any.

The existing east-west view corridors (shown in red) of Hopedale St & Amboy St don't even connect with the blue "extended axis" lines that Harvard proposes on the currently abandoned Sears site. The extended axis that continues east from Bertram Street cuts through the middle of the Science Complex but doesn't align with much of anything that architecturally had been proposed for the Science Complex. Hopefully we will see that corridor become a reality in the Science Complex re-design. Finally, the extended axis that continues east from end of Rena Street cuts through the warehouses and truck maintenance facility that Harvard proposes to build at the intersection of Rena and Travis Street.

The back-side of Harvard's proposed basketball arena gets two black dots indicating "focal point opportunities". But it is only the back-side from my view in Allston. For Harvard, that is the front of the  arena, and the view from Harvard Stadium is what matters to Harvard, not the view from Allston.