Citizens Consider Look of the Square

Neighborhood activists gathered yesterday at University Place, a newly-opened business and housing complex on Mt. Auburn St., to discuss what the Square will look like and how they could influence that appearance.

About 100 Cantabridgians braved the driving rain to attend the annual meeting of the Harvard Square Defense Fund, a group organized to preserve the appearance and character of the Square.

Concerned over changes due to the large amount of new development and lack of a uniform process of community review, the group called in Charles M. Sullivan '64, executive director of the Cambridge Historical Commission, to discuss officially designating the area a historical area.

"Preservation has not received much attention in Harvard Square for several years," Sullivan said. "It is a complex urban environment that has been developed over and over again for 372 years."

He cited Winthrop St., Church St., the Gulf service station on Mass. Ave, and Winthrop Square Park outside Grendel's restaurant as "critical areas for development."

But Sullivan said that declaring the area a historical district, which would put it under state control, would be "too strictly regulating it."

"Harvard Square is really many different neighborhoods with many different characteristics, and can't be treated as homogeneous," he explained.

Instead, Sullivan recommended making the area a "classification district," a designation that would require each development proposal to be reviewed individually.

But monitoring a classification district, Sullivan added, requires the will and cooperation of the city. A commission would have to be organized, and its decisions enforced.

Defense Fund President Gladys P. Gifford said yesterday that the group would work to get Sullivan's plan implemented, because it would "provide a uniform means of monitoring construction." She added the group wanted to reprint Sullivan's speech, and would look into funding from the national Historical Society.

One possible source of aid is the national Society for Historical Preservation, which Sullivan said has an "emergency resource fund" and might be willing to provide seed money for the project.

The only other option that Sullivan ex- pressed was for community groups such as the defense fund to continue fo be "a squeaky wheel" to get attention from Cambridge officials.

The group has experimented with the second option since its formation in 1979. In the past, the group has protested video arcades and liquor licenses, which they say would be detrimental to the character of the Square.

They have managed to block a proposed arcade in The Garage, and the city council is considering a measure limiting the total number of liquor licenses in the area.

University Place Open

With the help of other neighborhood groups, the defense fund has succeeded in forcing developers to consult with them on building plans. University Place is an example.

"University Place has been a model of community-developer dialogue." Gifford said, adding that with current zoning laws, the project could have been 50 percent bigger than it is. The result would have been "out of character in the Square."

Developer David I. Vickery of Gerald Hines Development, said relations between his firm and the community had been "terrific" because Harvard University, which owns he land "look the initiative to talk to area residents."

When the project was begun in May of 1982, the University sad down with concerned Cantabridgians to review the proposed design for the 4,5-acre plot, Vickery explained.

Although the already moved into the fifth and sixth floors of the building