All In for Allston

After years of speculation, discussion, and hype, the Harvard-Allston Initiative has finally released its master plan. The “Plan for Harvard in Allston” shows that the University is thinking fifty years ahead in a comprehensive way, and we applaud the hard work of all those involved in the planning process. The report takes into consideration both lofty goals and day-to-day issues of livability and practicality. As the plan moves toward reality, however, Harvard must not forget that its heart and soul rest in the College. Accordingly, it must take great care, through consideration of logistics related to the new undergraduate houses and promised student center, to ensure a continued sense of undergraduate community.

The “Plan for Harvard in Allston” addresses real and crucial concerns about the University’s expansion into Allston. The report endorses interdisciplinary teaching and research, especially in the sciences, a furtherance of former University President Lawrence H. Summers’ vision that is necessary if the University is to be a leader of science in the 21st century. The report also emphasizes the importance of an environmentally friendly physical plant. In Allston, campus sustainability will be a priority; all projects will be required to meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system’s certification. Further, the report attends to transportation concerns and includes a detailed plan for each roadway in the new development.

As the Allston project continues to move forward, however, ensuring a positive undergraduate experience must remain one of the University’s top priorities. In the first phase of Allston development, Harvard plans to build four new undergraduate houses in the “northwest” development near current athletic facilities to which Quad residents would be relocated. The decision to build four houses is essential, as only a critical mass of students in the new houses will obviate these students’ sense of alienation from their classmates. If the reason for developing the houses near the athletic fields rather than in the second-phase location across Weeks footbridge (a location much nearer to the other river houses) is, as stated, easier shuttle access, then the future shuttle system must run regularly and reliably.

Further, the University must make good on its plans to create a new student center. Kathy Spiegelman, Chief Planner for Harvard’s Allston development group, said that the master plan proposes that if the University decides affirmatively to relocate undergraduates from the Quad to the river, Dillon Field House could be renovated into a student center, thus preserving the old building’s (Dillon was built in the 1930s) history and character. Whatever the University ultimately decides, the construction of a functional student center in Allston will be critical to the success of the undergraduate community there.

The “Plan for Harvard in Allston” is a promising glimpse of Harvard’s future Allston campus. Its overriding themes, frameworks, and design recommendations are impressive. But the University must emphasize the significance of the undergraduate experience in the future campus south of the Charles. We look forward to joining the Allston team and the rest of the Harvard community in the coming months in discussions on how to make the Allston campus as good as it can be.