Winthrop and Currier To Provide Off-Site Summer Storage

Winthrop House and Currier House will be providing students with free off-site storage for this summer due to construction projects that will limit storage space traditionally offered on-site.

Winthrop has arranged free limited off-site storage for the next three summers due to construction in preparation for House renewal in 2016-2017, Building Manager Britta Wierich wrote in an email to Winthrop affiliates this month.

Harvard will be doing “extensive” advanced construction work—such as replacing windows and chimneys—and thus will be unable to offer on-site summer storage this year. In past years, Winthrop has offered summer storage for students in its basement and attics.

Winthrop House Committee Co-Chair Marlee A. Ehrlich ’16 characterized both her response and the general student response to the announcement as mostly positive. She said that because summer storage had been “a concern in other houses,” some Winthrop students were relieved and excited that free summer storage had been arranged for them.

“I’m glad [administrators] are thinking of us,” Ehrlich said. The details of the arrangements had not been shared with Winthrop residents, she added.

Students in Quincy House’s recently renovated Stone Hall expressed frustration last spring over the lack of free on-campus summer storage.

Currier will also offer its residents free off-site storage this summer for similar reasons.

As the House expands its gym into what is currently a store room, it will offer its residents space at the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center to house their furniture for at least the next two years, Currier building manager Manuel J. Casillas wrote in an email to Currier this month.

According to Currier House Administrator Patricia G. Pepper, both House administrators and House Committee members were involved in the decision. In addition to the renovation of the gym—which is unrelated to House renewal—Currier has also recently created a “relaxation room” stocked with comfortable chairs, similar to that in Pforzheimer House, for its students.

Neither House has announced whether free off-site storage will be offered past the next several years.

—Staff writer Quynh-Nhu Le can be reached at quynhnhu.le@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @qnhule.