Allston Development Forges Ahead

A Harvard task force will recommend today that future Allston development be anchored around two science complexes of 500,000 square feet each, in which faculty from different fields will work collaboratively on several broad areas of interdisciplinary research.

In the much-delayed report, released today, the Allston Task Force on Science and Technology set forth for the first time the science initiatives which will constitute the first wave of projects to move across the river.

The report, which was obtained by The Crimson yesterday, did not address details about the time frame, potential cost and infrastructure of the Allston development.

The interdisciplinary programs chosen for development in Allston have been in the works since the task force’s initial call for proposals in Jan. 2004.

“The first science building will have the stem cell project, chemical biology and systems biology and some portion of engineering,” said University Provost Steven E. Hyman, who chaired the task force, yesterday.

The chemical biology project will coordinate Harvard’s current efforts in applying small molecule chemistry to larger biological systems. The systems biology initiative will bring together biologists with computer scientists, engineers and mathematicians.

The Stem Cell Institute, an initiative led by Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences Douglas Melton and established last year, does not currently have its own facilities. It also will be given space in Allston to accommodate all researchers under one roof.

The task force chose only a handful of projects for the first wave of development in Allston from among 17 faculty proposals.

“This is not to say that all of these initiatives had detailed strategic plans, budgets, and staffing plans but rather that they were intellectually well-defined...” the report stated.

Although much of the intellectual groundwork towards Allston development has been completed, Hyman stresses that many details remain to be worked out.

The report states that the task force still does not know where and when buildings will be built in Allston, and Hyman said he could not give a time frame for the development.

“The planning process to think about the first building depends very much on our conversations with the Allston neighbors, the city and the mayor especially, but we are hoping to have more details on this in the fall,” Hyman said.

Task force member Eric Buehrens, executive dean for administration at Harvard Medical School (HMS), said that the cost of the project will vary based on “how you do your accounting.”

“It’s potentially going to cost a lot of money. Whether it’s billions or hundreds of millions will depend on how you look at it,” Buehrens said.

The total cost to the University will depend on whether the figure includes all of the physical infrastructure required to support the new campus and the execution of new educational and research programs.

“The numbers associated with hiring faculty and start-up packages for research, those are smaller numbers,” Buehrens said. “By anybody’s measure, Allston is going to be a very expensive undertaking.”

Though Hyman declined to give estimated figures for the cost of the construction, he said that the University will be fund-raising for the new Allston initiatives.

“We’ve already begun fund-raising for the Stem Cell Institute,” he said.

Hyman added that there was a “sense of urgency” for the creation of a building to house stem cell research because of federal funding regulations that mandate segregated space for research on human embryonic stem cells.

“Life is very cumbersome for our [stem cell] scientists,” Hyman said. “To have a separate facility with their own equipment will really facilitate their research. If Doug Melton or one of his students wants to use a piece of equipment in another building, they can’t touch it if it was bought with federal money.”

Hyman also said that the Allston stem cell initiative is essential for maintaining ground-breaking stem cell research.

“California has had this effort to provide state money for stem cell scientists,” Hyman said. “Our answer is to have great intellectual cohesion and in that sense, shared facilities are very important.”

Melton declined to comment yesterday.

BLUEPRINTS IN WHITE PAPERS

The report stated that one group of initiatives—Global Health, Quantitative Health and Social Sciences, and Health Policy—should be located “within or immediately adjacent” to the Harvard School of Public Health’s (SPH) future campus in Allston.

SPH is in the middle of its own Allston planning process, though some professors have voiced concerns that moving to Allston will disrupt research collaborations with HMS, which is currently located next door to SPH in the Longwood Medical Area.

In an attempt to garner support for the Allston move, University President Lawrence H. Summers told SPH faculty at a meeting April 13 that the school would be able to maintain facilities at its current Longwood location, as well as populate new buildings in Allston.

Two more of the “white paper” initiatives, the Environment and the Quantum Science and Engineering initiative, could be housed effectively in the current science campus north of the Science Center, according to the report.

The Northwest Building, a 470,000 square foot facility, and the Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering, a 135,000 square foot facility, are both currently under construction in the North Yard.

In addition to the first wave of programs identified for Allston, the task force indicated that a second group of initiatives is still in development, which will include projects on Global Neglected Diseases, Health Policy, Innovative Computing and Origins of Life.

“The Task Force believes that these initiatives are not yet ready for large scale funding or space from the University,” the report stated.

These initiatives will be given seed money in order to expand their proposals, Hyman said.

The task force’s report also suggested that another call for a second round of proposals may be made in the future.

—Staff writer May Habib can be reached at habib@fas.harvard.edu.