New Ten Story Structure Planned To House Offices, Medical Center

The proposed new University Health Center and administrative building will be a ten story modern structure, the University disclosed yesterday. Housing also stores and offices, the $9 million structure which is to fill the block between Holyoke and Dunster Streets on Massachusetts Avenue, will dominate the Square.

Until money is obtained for the building, it "is just a dream," the University said. Although some of the necessary funds are included in the Program for Harvard College, over half of it must come from special gifts. The building is planned so that it can be built in two stages as the money becomes available.

Designed by Jose L. Sert, Dean of the School of Design, the block will feature modern stores, tree-lined promenades along Holyoke and Dunster Streets, and an arcade through the center of the block to link the Yard and Houses.

It is hoped that the set-back of the building will "keep the open, sunny appearance of Cambridge streets." The building itself is also set back from the street.

"The facade of the building will be a lattice of precast finely-finished architectural concrete with panels of different colors to give variety," the University revealed. By breaking the large structure into units of smaller and varying facades, both texturally and structurally, the monolithic feeling of a normal ten-story building will be avoided.

Office Space Included

Besides the Health Center the building will have space for administrative offices of the University which now occupy dormitories in the Yard. The space offered is expected to provide room for future expansion.

Residents of buildings which will be torn down to make room for the new structure expressed general approval of the projected plans yesterday. The University has been working closely with its tenants, and it is expected that many of them will want to move in on the ground floor of the new building.

Merchants also were happy about the commercial aspect of the project. Ellsworth Young, owner of the Phillips Book Store, said that it was an "encouraging sign which will draw a lot of business to the area." He dubbed it the Radio City of Harvard Square.