Brattle Motel Starts Climb In the Spring

Construction on Brattle Square's 23 story skyscraper motel will begin this spring and should be finished in about a year, a spokesman for the company that will build it said yesterday.

Rising about 250 feet above the ground, the building will be Cambridge's tallest. Construction was originally scheduled to begin last June, but was postponed when negotiations between the builder, the Beacon Construction Company in Brookline, and a prospective operator, Howard Johnson, collapsed.

Will Blend with Surroundings

William B. Tabler '26, the motel's architect, has used the additional time to refine the building's design. He predicted last night that "It's going to blend very well" with the surrounding architecture in Harvard Square.

The motel will be built on the site of the Amoco gas station at 104 Mt. Auburn Street. The land was purchased at a price of $34 a square foot, a figure approaching New York realty values.

Although no operator has yet agreed to run the motel, negotiations are underway with several companies. The motel will contain about 200 rooms, a swimming pool, a restaurant, and five floors for parking.

Tabler, who specializes in hotel-motel architecture and designed the New York Hilton, said that final plans would be ready within a month. Tabler also reported that he has visited Cambridge frequently to visualize the site area, and that two other designers were here last week in order that he could "get completely different points of view from different individuals."