Resident Alleges That Harvard Damaged Home

A Cambridge resident has alleged that the University harmed his home during construction of graduate student housing, and that Harvard has failed to adequately compensate him for the damages.

Martin Annis, 85, claims that his home at 65-67 Banks St.—an 1875 structure near Mather House where he lives with first-floor tenants—was damaged during the construction of the adjacent Cowperthwaite graduate dormitory. Annis’s complaints are likely to be discussed at a March 5 Cambridge City Council roundtable meeting on housing.

Annis says that the University has offered him $1,500 in return for a legal promise not to make further claims against Harvard. Instead, he says he’s made a counteroffer, asking for $90,000 to cover repairs to the sunken foundation of his Riverside home—a foundation he says is “just large rocks, rather than reinforced concrete.”

“[Before building at Cowperthwaite] Harvard told the planning board that they would mitigate damages,” Annis says of the city’s Inspectional Services Department, “which I understand as, if there’s any damage to the house, [Harvard] would pay for it.”

ROBUST MITIGATION

Thomas J. Lucey, Harvard’s director of community relations for Cambridge, declined to comment on individual cases, but he says Harvard makes strong attempts to offset the effects of its development.

“Harvard has probably the most comprehensive and robust construction mitigation program in this area, and it’s generally successful,” Lucey says.

According to Lucey, the University hires structural engineers to survey all properties adjoining its construction projects before work begins and after it finishes. If Harvard construction has unintended effects, the University works to resolve the problem with the property owner.

In some cases, Lucey says, this means assessing the cost of the damage and providing monetary compensation.

Annis says that Harvard did take photographs of his home before and after the Cowperthwaite construction. However, he says the team sent to assess post-construction damage ignored his tenants’ requests to photograph a crack that had appeared in one of his walls during construction. While Harvard did pay to repair a window and pipe that broke as the house settled, he says, they made no such offer for the crack.

Annis says he received a letter on February 26 from Lucey asking that Annis’s lawyer meet with a lawyer for Harvard.

MAKING IT PUBLIC

Annis says he may still consider negotiating with the University—but that it’s not the easiest option.

“I cannot afford to enter into a lawsuit against Harvard University,” Annis says. “I’m doing my best to fight them: I’ve gone public with the city.”

At the Feb. 11 council meeting, Annis said Harvard’s construction workcaused his foundation to sink—resulting in the cracks in his walls—and damaged the exterior of his house when it was struck by a flood of slurry, a material used to hold back dirt during excavations.

Other Riverside residents at the meeting complained that they felt excluded from the decision-making process surrounding the Cowperthwaite project.

Construction began on the six-story Cowperthwaite apartments in 2005, as part of the University’s initiative to provide housing for 50 percent of its graduate students by 2011.

Councilor Craig A. Kelley says he is concerned about the level of communication between the University and residents of the Riverside neighborhood.

“As I understand it, a variety of neighbors think Harvard has not at all met its commitments,” Kelley writes in an e-mailed statement.

The Cowperthwaite dispute highlights a larger issue, according to Councilor Sam Seidel: how universities negotiate building student housing with the surrounding community.

“It’s pretty clear the University needs to be working with the council,” Seidel says. “I fully expect that Harvard understands that and has learned that lesson over the years.”

—Staff writer Sarah J. Howland can be reached at showland@fas.harvard.edu