Where to Put 2 Million Books

This summer Harvard will start construction on the first new buildings in the Yard in 26 years, the Nathan M. Pusey Library and a new freshman dormitory.

President Bok announced the new dormitory only last week, but the Pusey Library has been in the works for seven years, and the University's cautiousness about its planning and design has been more apparent.

There were several delays in the release of the plans. When they were finally made public, it was obvious that the University had bent over backward to make sure that the library would not intrude on the Yard's stately atmosphere--the library will be almost invisible when it is completed.

When it is being built, however, the new library will be not only visible but also very noisy. Construction workers will have to blast a 40-foot deep hole in the Yard, and the library will not be completed until Spring of 1975.

Students in Sever and Emerson Halls will be surrounded by the construction projects next year and nobody is exactly sure how much of a problem the noise will be.

Everybody is sure, however, that Harvard scraped up $11 million from private donations to cover the cost of the new construction--with three million coming from one anonymous philanthropist.

For the full story of the conception, design and realization of plans for the Pusey Library see page 3.