The Changing Square

Plans for the development of a large complex incorporating hotels, office and retail space on Memorial Drive near the Kennedy School have been moving quickly since the developers and neighborhood activists settled their differences over the site in December.

Construction of the $75-million Charles Square project-formerly known as Parcel lb and situated on a four-acre site behind the Kennedy School-is scheduled to begin in May, Richard L. Friedman, president of Carpenter and Co. the developers, said last week.

Friedman predicted that the project would be finished by the end of 1984.

It look five and a half years of negotiations, both with city officials and with each other, before the developers and community groups agreed to the present plan, which emphasizes residential and hotel space and provides an underground parking garage.

The complex includes a 300-room hotel and 86 luxury condominiums, with 40,000 square feet of retail space (about the size of the Galeria mall on Kennedy St.) and 110,000 square feet of offices.

Friedman said he expects the project to bring about a significant change in the character of Harvard Square. The international and specialty shops in the complex and the luxury hotel, he said will attract "mature, adult customers" to the Square.

He added that the 700-car parking garage will also encourage people to park their cars at Charles Square and walk to the Square.

But the large development has been designated to fit in with the surrounding architecture, Friedman added. The buildings will be red brick, and $2 million of the $5 million profit from the land sale will be used to build a Kennedy Memorial Park along the edge of Memorial Drive.

Until the construction is completed, Friedman said traffic in the Square will be disrupted, but that in the long run, benefits outweigh temporary inconveniences. "The Square is the winner," he said.

Controversy, surrounding the land began in 1963, when then-president John F. Kennedy '40 chose Parcel lb as the site for his memorial library. But neighborhood groups opposed the library, concerned about increased traffic from tourists, and the Kennedy family decided to relocate the memorial on Columbia Point in Boston.

In 1977, the use of the land again came into question, when Carpenter and Co. was selected from six semifinalists to develop the site. Community groups once again protested the plans, this time because the proposed project relied heavily on retail use, which they said would create the same traffic tie-ups the library would have.

Comfortable

Friedman called present interaction between the developers and community activists "a comfortable and good working relationship." He added that he meets monthly with representatives from the Harvard Square Defense Fund (HSDF). Neighborhood 10 and other community groups to "keep them a breast of the plans, and to get input."