Getting House Renewal Right

Sixteen months ago, Stone Hall was still Old Quincy. Some Quincy sophomores still had to walk through each other’s rooms to get to the bathroom. Others had to climb over their roommates to get to the door. Nobody is nostalgic for the cramped quarters of a couple years ago. Stone Hall today is a beautiful building worthy of Harvard.  But administrators billed Old Quincy as a test project, and they should continue to see it that way. The renovation is a vast improvement, but it is far from perfect. The loss of the suite-style arrangement that is integral to upperclassman life is especially troubling. The final cost of the renovations will likely be over $1 billion, so it is crucial to get it right. As renewal proceeds, it is important for Harvard to consult with students to apply lessons from Stone Hall to future renovations.

The architects of the renewed buildings have admirably tried to develop community in the Houses by creating “cluster common rooms” for students and tutors, but the cost has been the phasing out of the private common rooms. These cluster common rooms make it impossible for students to socialize privately among close friends. Having a private common room is one of the privileges of upperclassmen life, and it is also one of the most important social spaces on campus. While it is an admirable goal to encourage mingling among neighbors, cluster common rooms will likely do more to reduce comfort and privacy. It would be a shame if, in the process of seeking to establish community, Harvard eliminated as important a part of the undergraduate experience as the suite common room.

There is also a danger that all of the Houses will begin to feel uncomfortably similar. Stone Hall is beautiful, but if every House feels the same on the inside, the Houses will become like dorms. It should be possible for a student to tell which House they are in simply by standing in the hallway or in a student room. And within the Houses, if every room feels the same, the fun of quirky, special rooms will be lost. If Eliot loses the Cockpit or Currier loses the Ten Man, a great deal of character and individuality will disappear.

These are the major issues that must be addressed in future plans. There are also minor issues—the lack of peepholes on doors and the lack of gender-neutral bathrooms, for example—but those are easily resolvable. It is more important for Harvard and the architects to resolve the big problems. That can only happen by consulting with undergraduates.