Eliot House Renewal to Begin Construction in June

Residents of Eliot House, one of Harvard’s undergraduate residential houses, have one more semester in their main building before renovations begin next June, according to Cameron Borgasano, Director of the Undergraduate House Renewal Program.

Starting in fall 2025, Eliot students will be housed in the former Inn at Harvard, dorms on Prescott Street, and Harvard-owned property above businesses in Harvard Square as the main Eliot dorms are renovated.

Unlike the ongoing Adams House Renovation project, which has been completed building by building, Eliot’s renovation will not happen in phases. Instead, the building will be renovated all at once over the course of two years.

“The entirety of Eliot House will be closed for the duration of the renewal,” Borgasano wrote.

First opened in 1931, Eliot House was one of the College’s seven original houses. It will be the seventh house to be restored as part of a larger effort to renovate all 12 of Harvard’s undergraduate houses.

According to Borgasano, the Eliot House Renewal’s design phase will conclude this winter before the Harvard Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — approves the plan.

Borgasano said that after approval, construction is “anticipated to commence in June 2025” and conclude by Fall 2027.

Architecture firm Kieran Timberlake will lead the project after the conclusion of the Adams House renewal. Kieran Timberlake also completed restorations of Leverett House’s McKinlock Hall, Quincy House’s Stone Hall, Dunster House, and Lowell House.

A different company, Beyer Blinder Belle, helmed the Adams House renewal project after renovating Winthrop House in 2017.

Like earlier projects, the Eliot renovations will include new doors and windows, replaced electrical and plumbing systems, and fire safety upgrades. Interior changes include “reconfiguration to address accessibility, code and privacy issues and to provide updated social and academic spaces,” Borgasano wrote.

Borgasano declined to comment on whether Eliot House would continue to use dorms on Prescott Street as overflow housing once the renovations are complete. She also declined to comment on the project’s expected cost.

For the Adams renovation project, Harvard’s expected costs rose by 12 to 14 percent after construction began in fall 2019. After several delays, the Adams House Renewal is expected to conclude this year.

But for Eliot, Harvard is optimistic the work can be completed in two years.

In the project’s design phase, the Eliot Faculty Deans and architects met with residents to assess student opinion about the building upgrades. Several students said the House’ layout around the main courtyard was important to maintain.

Andrew J. Morrissey ’26 said he liked “how everyone has to walk through the courtyard — how the dining hall is easily accessible to everyone in the house.”

“I hope they don’t downsize the rooms further than they are to add hallways and stuff,” he added.

Audrey Gunawan ’25 also said she had come to see the house’s dining hall as a central part of Eliot living.

“Something that’s very important to Eliot is the fact that there’s a centralized courtyard, and the dhall sits at the front of that when you’re coming into the house,” Gunawan said. “Having open swipe pretty much all the time makes it really easy for everyone to bring their friends here and kind of create a community.”

Alyssa M. Bonia ’27 added that the project should not “lose the charm” of the house’s ornate dining hall.

“It’s one of the major hangout spots for a lot of people in Eliot,” she said.

But the renovation plan will also mean a serious shift for Eliot students, all of whom have to leave their courtyard and dining hall next fall. None of the building’s current residents will return to the main Eliot campus before their expected graduation.

Xander D. Patton ’26 said he is not looking forward to “senior year without a house.”

“I’m kind of anxious about the idea of having our community be so decentralized and so spread out,” Patton said.

Eliot Faculty Dean David F. Elmer ’98 wrote in a statement to The Crimson that he and fellow faculty dean Bonnie M. Talbert have “been delighted to spend a good deal of time this fall getting to know as many members of the Eliot community as we can.”

“The most common theme we have heard is that Eliot residents love the House,” Elmer wrote. “Students want the House to retain a distinctively ‘Eliot’ character.”

—Staff Writer Michael R. Carney can be reached at michael.carney@thecrimson.com.

—Staff Writer Danielle J. Im can be reached at danielle.im@thecrimson.com.