Mild Weather Speeds Grad Center

Unusually mild weather for the past two months has helped speed construction work on the Jarvis Field Graduate Center dormitories sufficiently to enable Benjamin Thompson, of Architects Collaborative, Inc., to say last night that the project will be complete before the August 31 deadline. Thomposon noted, however, that severe shows could neutralize the present advantage.

"A lack of snow has enabled us to get a little ahead of our building schedule," Thompson said. "Most of the exterior structural work will probably be completed in February, and the interior furnishing will start the following month."

According to the designers, the dormitories will cover most of the field, with a large commons building, containing a dining hall and lounge, fronting on Massachusetts Avenue. President plans call for 223 single rooms in the dormitories, 97 double rooms with curtain partitions, and 79 two room suites with a connecting door.

The Harvard Corporation set aside $1,000,000 of what President Conant calls "the very precious unrestricted capital of the University," for the construction of a commons building, stipulating that the Law School and other graduate schools launch a drive for $1,300,000 to cover building and maintenance of the dormitories.

Thompson also announced that, with the assistance of several graduate school deans, furniture for the students' rooms has been designed and tested.

A single furnished dormitory room costs $5,000 to build and equip; a double room, $10,000. The furniture consists of a brown metal desk with a birch top, a fluorescent desk-lamp, bed form fitting desk-chair, and an easy chair covered with a new simulated leather plastic.

Other Items are: seven-foot picture windows, built-in wooden cabinets and acoustic tile on ceilings and corridor floors.