IMPROVED HARVARD SQUARE

Harvard square is to be greatly improved and benefited if the plans presented to the Harvard Square Business Men's Association are carried out. These plans, formulated by a committee appointed by President Lowell at the request of the Mayor of Cambridge last year, were recently submitted to the association. The committee, composed of Professor Herbert L. Warren h.'02, Professor Eugene J. A. Duquesne, Assistant Professor John S. Humphrey '93, and Assistant Professor Henry V. Hubbard '97, has been working nearly a year in ascertaining the exact condition and needs of the Square.

Its recommendations may be summed up as follows:

1. To widen Massachusetts avenue between Central square and Harvard square, so that it should have minimum width of eighty feet from building line to building line.

2. To widen Massachusetts avenue from Quincy square to Harvard square by placing the sidewalk under arcades to be constructed under existing buildings on the southern side of the Avenue.

3. To establish new building lines on Harvard square thus increasing its size, and to broaden the approach from Harvard square to Brattle square.

4. To widen Boylston street by taking ten feet on the easterly side between Harvard square and the river.

5. To open DeWolfe street more directly from Quincy square, and widen it to the river.

6. To abolish River View avenue, and throw the land partly into the parking of Charles River Road and partly into more room for the new Freshman Dormitories.

7. To fix a limit of height (certainly not higher than any building existing on Harvard Square), in and about the Square.

8. To adopt a zoning system, devoting certain regions to residence purposes, and restricting appartment houses to certain clearly defined localities.

9. To take steps for the construction of a hotel on or near Harvard square. Also, to take steps toward an adequate Assembly and Convention Hall.

10. That an electric car line is needed from Harvard square through Boylston street to Allston, Brighton and Brookline.

To give effect to these recommendations action will be required by the city authorities. Cordial co-operation between the city authorities and private owners will be essential. To this end--and especially looking to an endeavor to secure a harmonious architectural treatment--the committee suggests that it is essential that a permanent expert commission with advisory powers should be appointed by the public authorities, to whom all projects for the improvement of the Square should be submitted