Grad Dorms Remain Unfinished

About five months after they were promised completed housing, graduate students are still residing in an unfinished University complex at 29 Garden St.

Unanticipated structural problems have prolonged construction and the building—originally expected to be completed in September—is now anticipated to be finished in mid-April, said Susan K. Keller, director of residential real estate services for Harvard Real Estate Services (HRES).

According to Keller, demolition of the former hotel and Harvard University Police Department headquarters revealed an unexpected variation in the size and design of the floors. Although all of the apartments have been completed, construction continues in the dining area, garage and common area disturbing some residents.

“I spent the first week of February waking up to the sound of a jackhammer,” Bryce E. Steeg, a first-year law school student, wrote in an e-mail.

HRES moved students into the complex in waves—the last of which occurred in December. While they waited for their apartments to be completed, graduate students stayed at the Marriott Residence Inn in Kendall Square and the Marriott Boston Cambridge Hotel at HRES’s expense.

But while graduate student Marusia Musacchio said that HRES has been “accommodating,” she was not thrilled when she moved into her apartment in December.

“So far, my experience hasn’t exactly been fantastic,” she said.

In an e-mail to HRES, graduate student Marie E. Gryphon said that the “advertised amenities,” such as the group study areas, were one of the reasons she and her roommates chose to live at 29 Garden St.

“In addition to providing a place to work without imposing on our roommates, [the group study areas] were supposed to contribute to the academic community feeling of the building,” she said. “We were counting on that in our choice of housing.”

The study areas are boarded up, Gryphon said, and the garage is still undergoing construction.

First-year law school student Angela M. Yingling said the noise wasn’t particularly problematic.

“It’s a little bit disruptive, but it’s honestly not that big a deal,” she said, adding that HRES gave students whose apartments were closer to construction a 10 percent discount on rent for December and January.

Gryphon said that the 10 percent was not adequate.

“I would urge HRES to consider a substantially more generous settlement package,” she wrote in the e-mail to HRES. She said she is meeting with HRES next month to discuss her complaints.

—Staff writer Margaret W. Ho can be reached at mwho@fas.harvard.edu.