Students Shun Athletic Planning

It will be hard to know what kind of sports facilities the Harvard and Radcliffe students want if no one gives the architects a hint.

Only six students showed up Tuesday night at the Kirkland JCR for a meeting with Michael McKinnell and Ed Carfagno-representatives of the architectural firm of Kallman and McKinnell-to discuss the additions and improvements needed for varsity and recreational sports in the Harvard-Radcliffe community.

Kallman and McKinnell has been hired by Harvard to plan sporting facilities to meet the expected needs of the community for the next 25 to 50 years.

McKinnell said that two weeks of meetings with Harvard coaches have just been completed. His firm is now trying to integrate the coaches' requests with students' needs.

"Every coach wants more practice space and larger seating capacity. They've told us their maximum desires. Now we have to edit the program in order to find the optimum-realistic-facilities-that should be built," McKinnell said.

Both McKinnell and Carfagno stressed that no plans were nearly finalized as yet. More meetings will have to be held between their firm and the Harvard Building Facilities Committee to determine the needs of the community and the funds that can be allotted.

"And we want everyone to understand that we're not going to build one mammoth building-like Notre Dame. Our plan will be one which will consist of incremental steps over many years." McKinnell added.

Several of the most pressing needs and main priorities were outlined during the meeting:

Basketball-varsity coach Bob Harrison would like a 4500-seat gymnasium. The IAB court is always overcrowded during the hours in which pickup games are allowed. A new field house on Soldiers' Field is a possibility.

Swimming-a 50-meter pool is needed for proper varsity training. The IAB pool could be freed for recreational swimming.

Hockey and skating-Watson Rink needs to be enlarged to hold 5000. fans. A new rink for recreational purposes may be built on the Observatory grounds at Radcliffe where tennis courts are currently located.

Racquet sports-squash and indoor tennis courts are needed to relieve overcrowding.

The architects and planning committee have also been considering how to make better use of existing facilities. Other plans mentioned Tuesday night were astro-turfing the Stadium field, putting indoor tennis courts in Briggs Cage and converting the floor of Memorial Hall into several basketball courts.