On the Fast Track

George Oommen has designed a new stimulant for the track team which should increase the runners' speeds by about three percent.

Experts say it will reduce fatigue and decrease the chance of injury. "When I use it, I feel like I'm floating," says one track team member.

Oommen specially designed the $1 million out-door track for speed, and early indications are that he succeeded. The 440-yard track has been in use for only a few weeks at Harvard, but it is already drawing rave reviews from both runners and the international media.

"It is one of the fastest and finest tracks in the world," says track coach Frank Haggerty. "The ease with which we have been able to produce fast times in workouts so far is extraordinary."

Walter Cronkite's television program, "Universe," recently featured the track and it is currently the subject of a documentary film to be broadcast in England by the BBC.

The eight-lane structure consists of a rubber surface supported by a rubber waffle understructure, resting on an asphalt base, which experts say gives it enough flexibility to not only increase speed, but also reduce fatigue and decrease the chance of injury. Oommen fine-tuned the compliance of the track, minimalizing the time a runner's foot is in contact with the surface to bring about these benefits.

The track is only one of several projects Oommen has designed, planned and managed for Harvard. After being graduated from the Graduate School of Design in 1978, he joined Harvard's planning office. He has since been promoted to special assistant to the vice president for administration and his projects and designs have had significant impact on both Harvard and the world of design.

He has designed, planned or managed construction of Blodgett Pool, Bright Hockey Center, Albert H. Gordon Indoor Track and Tennis Building. Briggs Cage, the $22.5 million Soldiers Field Park housing project, and numerous University renovation projects including Sever Hall and Pea-body Museum. In all, since 1979 he has managed projects totalling $150 million.

This, however, is only one part of his job. His other responsibilities include reviewing all construction requests, advising project managers on hiring outside consultants, and overseeing land-scaping projects.

In addition, he manages University designing and placing plaques throughout the University to commemorate major donors. Oommen says each plaque takes about eight months to complete, as the final products must be "impeccable."

His role as Harvard's head landscaper, he says, is often a full-time job in itself. "Unlike schools such as Princeton, where no one ever passes through," he says, "we let the whole community use our grounds, which means they take a lot of abuse."

Two of his more recent landscaping projects include the quadrangle in front of the Freshman Union, and the installation of the Henry Moore sculpture in front of Lamont Library. He says he had the installation filmed, set the film to music and gave it to the donor.

He also designed the new "sunburst" cobblestone patterns in front of Boylston Hall. Sometimes landscaping projects have required special efforts, as when he travelled to Connecticut in search of "the right tree" to put in front of Lehman Hall.

The new outdoor track, however, is probably the most extraordinary of Oommen's accomplishments. Its impact will not only be felt at Harvard, but internationally as well, he claims. World class runners who are very close to setting records "may want to come and use the track to improve their time by the small amount necessary," he says.

"If it produces the way we think it will," says Associate Director for Athletics Pat Miller, "it will be a place where people will want to come and compete."

Director of Athletics John P. Reardon '60 adds "People talk to me all the time about running on it, simply because it's so innovative."

Some of the country's premier runners may compete on the track if Boston is selected as the site of the 1986 National Sports Festival. The United States Olympic Committee is considering 12 cities, and they will make the final decision in the spring, a spokesman said.

The indoor track, also designed by Oommen, was built in 1977 with the same concept in mind. It is regarded as one of the world's fastest indoor tracks and already about a dozen other universities have used the same design. It is regarded as one of the world's fastest indoor tracks and already about a dozen other universities have used the same design.

Sebastain Coe, one of the world's premier milers, once fell while running a race on the indoor track and still was able to get up and win the race.

According to Oommen, Coe credited the track not only with allowing him to win, but with preventing an injury as well.

"When we decided to build the track," Oommen says, "we decided that it was going to be the best track in the world."