No Start Date Set For House Renewal

A series of major renovations across the Houses—which Dean of Student Life Suzy M. Nelson said last year was anticipated to begin in 2012—could be delayed, depending on funds available for the project.

At the Faculty meeting on Tuesday, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith did not specify a particular start year for the venture, saying that the beginning of construction is still several years away.

The start of construction will depend on the funds available to the University, Smith said.

First announced in April 2008, House renewal is an ambitious project that aims to revitalize the physical infrastructure of the 12 residential Houses and make significant changes to program offerings and the roles of House staff members.

Administrators said at the time of the announcement that the planned changes include gutting the Houses and transforming their interiors to better fit students’ needs.

In 2008, Smith said that Harvard would spend “over a billion dollars” on the project.

While Smith has never publicly issued an official start date for House renewal, past statements from administrators have offered an evolving timeline for the project’s start date.

When House renewal was first announced, it was anticipated to start as early as 2011. But in March 2009, Nelson, then-associate dean for residential life, said that construction was scheduled to begin as early as 2012—one year later than the original estimate.

Nearly three months later, amid an unprecedented 27.3 percent loss in the University’s endowment and FAS budget cuts totaling $77 million, Smith and Nelson reiterated that 2012 was “the earliest possible” deadline.

And in Sept. 2009, Nelson, who had assumed the post of dean of student life, pointed to 2012 as the likely start date.

“We anticipate actual construction for 2012, and I think we should keep talking about this date,” she said at the time.

Nelson said in Feb. 2010 that while the construction start date was “dependent on our financial climate and philanthropic gifts,” planning for House renewal had not slowed down.

“That is right on target,” she said.

Nelson did not return a request for comment for this article.

FAS spokesman Jeff Neal said that Smith’s comments at the Faculty meeting did not constitute an actual change in plans.

“Dean Smith has always said that—regardless of when we might be prepared from a planning perspective—the decision to move to the construction phase would always depend on funding,” Neal wrote in an e-mailed statement. “[Smith] reiterated that exact point at Tuesday’s Faculty Meeting. Nothing has changed.”

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: October 9, 2010

An earlier version of the Oct. 7 news article "No Start Date Set For House Renewal" incorrectly stated that a series of major renovations across the undergraduate Houses could be "further delayed." Contrary to the phrase's suggestion, there was no earlier instance of delay. The administration had stated in the past as a possible timeline that renovations could start as early as 2011.