Harvard Agrees to Save Houses at University Place

Harvard has agreed, after a month of negotiations with protesting local residents, to preserve two "historically significant" buildings on the site of its proposed $25 million University Place, a move that officials say may raise the cost and perhaps endanger the massive condominium and commercial office development.

The University will present its final plan for the two-year-old project--which encountered its first significant neighborhood opposition in December when the Cambridge historical commission refused to allow the demolition of the buildings at 134 Mt. Auburn St. and 3 Mt. Auburn Place--to the commission tomorrow.

Harvard faces a January 18 deadline for reaching a satisfactory compromise with nearly 200 residents who have asked the commission in a petition to block construction until Harvard revamps the University Place design to conform with their concerns for the preservation of their neighborhood.

At that time the Corporation must decide whether to proceed with the commercial complex, which would provide luxury housing and office space to individuals unaffiliated with the University. Harvard's two-year option to purchase the land for University Place from Cambridge businessman Louis DiGiovanni runs out January 24, and the historical commission will not meet again until February.

But even if the historical commission accepts Harvard's latest proposal--a decision that appears likely, Charles Sullivan, executive director of the commission, said yesterday--the University may decide to drop plans for the development altogether.

In order for the Corporation to approve construction, Robin Schmidt, vice-president for government and community affairs, said yesterday, the project must not only satisfy local residents but also provide Harvard with a fair return on its investment.

The commission's efforts to modify the design for University Place have been the most recent in a series of complications that together could make construction unprofitable, Schmidt added.

He said the mid-January deadline "doesn't give us much time to work out a solution," but declined to speculate on the project's chances for Corporation approval.

"Originally the design satisfied our investment concerns," Schmidt added, saying that because of changes forced by the historical commission he is now unsure whether the office and condo complex would earn an acceptable profit.

Several neighborhood leaders, who asked not to be identified, said they are reluctant to continue effort to pressure the University to preserve the two historically significant buildings at their current locations because Harvard might then decide to abandon the project.

Residents are worried that another developer who might replace Harvard at the site--located across from the Mt. Auburn St. post office and currently used primarily as a 350-space parking lot--would design a project that overall would be far less responsive to neighborhood concerns.

"This project is different in that we were asked by city officials to step in and come up with a plan that would be less undesirable than other proposals," Schmidt said.

Schmidt added that Harvard has not yet decided how to revise its design for presentation to the commission tomorrow.

But Jacqueline O'Neill, assistant to the vice-president for government and community affairs, said that at the most recent meeting with neighborhood representatives, Harvard outlined a "minimum guarantee" proposal which would revamp University Place plans to leave the house at 134 Mt. Auburn St. undisturbed at its current location and to move the building at 3 Mt. Auburn Place to one of five potential locations in the neighborhood.

"We haven't had time to go through all the options," O'Neill said, adding, however, that "Everyone agrees that neither of the buildings will be demolished."

Harvard's petition for demolition permits for the two buildings, submitted in December, will come before the historical commission at its meeting in February, but Sullivan said Harvard officials told him they plan to substitute a modified design for that request.

If Harvard decides on the "minimum guarantee" option, the historical commission, which may only prevent the demolition of historically significant structures, would be forced to accept the proposal.

But Tudor G. Ingersoll, local residents' chief negotiator with Harvard, said the "minimum guarantee" revision is unacceptable to neighbors who want to see both buildings preserved at their current locations.

"We believe that their [Harvard's] little college try isn't big enough to satisfy what the neighborhood is entitled to," Ingersoll said. "We believe that Harvard could do better" and preserve both buildings at their present sites "if they were relieved of the January deadlines," he added.

While originally designing University Place, "Harvard just totally ignored the historical significance of those two buildings," Ingersoll said. But, he added, "The fact that they did not know does not absolve them of responsibility."

Harvard's mistake in not anticipating conflict with the historical commission developed because "we viewed the [University Place] site as a parking lot, an empty site," O'Neill said.

O'Neill added that although she is optimistic that a satisfactory "last-minute" solution can be arranged, "no matter what the option is you have to balance the trade-offs."

The minimum guarantee option, for instance, would force the elimination of a small park designed to cushion the neighborhood from the project and would generate considerable extra traffic along Revere St. because of the loss of a major access road to the condominiums, O'Neill said.

But Ingersoll said residents should not be saddled with a less than ideal neighbor in University Place because of Harvard's mistake in failing to consider the historically significant buildings.

He speculated that of five options Harvard has outlined for relocating the 3 Mt. Auburn Place building, the University will most likely choose the plan that would move the structure to the southwest corner of the University Place site.

The four other alternatives would entail an additional purchase of land by the University, Ingersoll said.

Until the historical commission intervened in the University Place plan, there had been little significant neighborhood opposition to the project. For the past year Harvard officials have reviewed the construction design with a community advisory group in order to address the concerns of local residents.

In December Harvard's proposal for about 85 condominiums and about 200,000 square feet of office space was also criticized by area businessmen who say the project would aggravate an already severe parking shortage in Harvard Square.

At the Mt. Auburn St. site the 350 parking spaces currently available to shoppers and workers would be reduced after University Place is completed to only about 110 unrestricted spaces