Pudding Renovations Delayed

After announcing plans for major renovations of the Hasty Pudding building last spring, College officials continue to search for a donor to finance the much-delayed, multimillion dollar project.

Although an overhaul of the Holyoke Street building—which has housed the Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ annual productions since its construction in 1888—was originally slated to begin in May 2002, it has since been pushed back to 2005. The College purchased the dilapidated structure from the Hasty Pudding Theatricals in 2000.

“We hope to start renovations in the spring 2005, following the Pudding show,” said Alan P. Symonds ’69, technical director and adviser for College Theatre Programs.

Last July after fire officials deemed use of the Holyoke Street structure hazardous, Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 approved $100,000 in funding for minor repairs—reupholstering seats, installing a more modern fire curtain and refurbishing the electric and drainage systems. Those repairs were just completed.

But the major renovations, which are expected to cost $25 million, have been postponed due to the inability to find a major donor.

According to Symonds, College administrators have said that no deadline has been set to find the necessary donor and no plans have been discussed to downscale the project or implement the renovations in stages.

“I am confident that the urgency of the project is understood,” Symonds said. “But given the difficult building conditions, I don’t think a staged approach would work.”

Symonds cited the difficulty of pursuing a major construction project in a space as tight and crowded as Holyoke Street, where the building is located, as the principle reason for the sizable price tag.

“The renovation is a comprehensive project that preserves important architectural features of the existing building, while providing a fully-equipped [theater] facility on the site,” Symonds said. “[But] there is no good access to construction equipment on the site so construction will be unusually complicated.”

In addition to refurbishing the structure’s current exterior and entrance, Leers Weinzapfel Architects of New York and Fisher Dachs Associates of Boston will completely redesign the interior space.

In Arts Spectrum, the newsletter of the Office for the Arts, Joseph Mobilia ’76, a theater consultant with Fisher Dachs since 1977, said the designers are seeking to create a more versatile and contemporary venue.

The redesign will incorporate steeply-raked seating, lighting along catwalks, control and follow-spot lighting booths and an orchestra pit into the existing infrastructure.

“The stage will have all new, state-of-the-art equipment, including a computerized lighting system, while a safer, more flexible counterweight rigging system will replace antique rope rigging,” Mobilia said in the newsletter.

In addition to renovating the public and backstage support areas, the designers also plan to raise the current building and append 40 ft. of underground space to include an additional rehearsal room and prop room, as well as several offices and conference spaces.

Like the source of the project’s funding, the College has yet to determine which student groups will use the refurbished space. The Pudding building will continue to house its current residents—including the a cappella groups the Harvard Krokodiloes and the Radcliffe Pitches and the Theatricals—and will likely offer office, rehearsal and performance space to a wider student community than ever before.

“We don’t have a plan yet for the full programming that will take place in the renovated Hasty Pudding building,” Symonds said. “However, we anticipate greatly increasing the number of performances in the space, and the number of groups able to use the space.”

—Staff writer Kimberly A. Kicenuik can be reached at kicenuik@fas.harvard.edu.