New 9-Story Arcade Set for Boylston St.

An ultra-modern nine-story office building will be exected later this year on Boylston St., opposite Holyoke Center. Reccussed five feet from the sidewalk, the reinforced concrete and tinted glass structure will include an arcade connecting Boylston and Dunster Streets.

Mark Gibbons, vice-president of R.A. Bradley and Company, leasing agents for the project, said yesterday that work on the building will tentatively begin next summer when leasing and financing arrangements have been made, and construction contracts awarded.

The proposed structure will rise on the sites now occupied by Western Union, Crimson. Men's Shop, Coach Grille, and Barnes and Noble Book Store. It will extend half-way to Dunster St., utffixing an existing alley for the arcade.

Gibbons stated that "great interest has been shown in the project on all sides. The building meets a definite need for efficient office space in the Square area, since a lack of good facilities has driven many prospective tenants away from Cambridge."

Gibbons also reported that L. Gard Wiggins, Administrative vice-President of the University, felt the project would be a great success.

Gibbons pointed out that proposed plans do not call for the use of any colored panels, and that the building is "definitely not inspired" by Holyoke Center. But he added that all contemporary architects seem to him to build the same way.

In discussing the aesthetic aspects, one official of the company said, "It will co-ordinate very well with Holyoke Center."

Store owners affected could not tell how the construction would alter their operations, since "everything is up in the air. No one is talking specifies." They seemed to believe, though, that modern shops in a distinctive location might bring new and expanded business. Western Union said it would continue service without any interference.

The clerk at the Varsity Liquor Store was the most skeptical of the observers. "They're putting up some good buildings, but I don't know about that one," he said.