New Plans Scale Down JFK Library

The Kennedy Library Corporation, responding to "community concerns and the press of inflation," unveiled greatly scaled down plans for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library last Friday.

The new design eliminates a planned glass pavillion and two 350-seat auditoriums to reduce the overall space for the library and museum by one-third.

The revisions so drastically reduce the archival space that only 6 million of the 22 million documents in the Kennedy collection will be moved from their temporary housing at the Federal Records Center-in Waltham.

Under the new plan, the 12.2-acre complex across from Eliot House will consist of a triangular-shaped museum and library overlooking the Charles River, a six-story Harvard political science center, and a three-acre park separating the two structures.

Steven Smith, head of the Library corporation and brother-in-law of the late President John F. Kennedy '40, set no completion date for the project, but estimated construction time at 18 months to two years.

No construction can begin, however, until the General Services Administration, which will own and operate the library, files an environmental impact statement on the project. Although a draft report is due in August, community and court review procedures could hold up the library indefinitely.

Architect I. M. Pei, explaining the "1974 plan" to a crowd of 100 Cambridge officials and residents at City Hall Friday, said he has redesigned the project to blend into the fabric of Harvard Square by reducing the size of the buildings and switching from concrete to brick as the primary facade material.

By breaking up the buildings, Pei said he created a Commonwealth Park linking the "active urban spaces" of the Charles River and Brattle Square.

Smith called the project, as redesigned, "a fitting memorial to President Kennedy, a welcome and environmentally acceptable neighbor, and a cultural, historical and educational asset to Cambridge, the Commonwealth and the nation."

He spurned schemes that would separate the library from museum or move the project to a different site, citing the "intent of Congress" in its resolution providing for the memorial and his firm's commitment to 20 million contributors.

The new design temporarily shelves plans to develop nearly four acres of the site into related commercial facilities that were expected to yield $750,000 in annual tax revenue for Cambridge. In its place, Pei has designed a 435-car tree-lined "parking park."

The Kennedy Library Corporation also announced arrangements with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and Harvard University to secure 800 additional spaces to supplement the on-site parking during peak periods.

Smith said that Harvard, in a letter to the library corporation, pledged 500 spaces at the Business School between June 15 and September 15 only, on a "pay as used basis."

Harvey Joyner, a traffic consultant to the Kennedy Corporation, estimated that the museum will draw 800,000 tourists to Cambridge annually. He said that the 1000 available parking spaces would be sufficient to accommodate peak daily turnouts of 7000 to 8000 visitors.

The trapezoidal Harvard building will house the Kennedy School of Government, the Department of Economics, the Center for International Affairs, the Institute of Politics, and Littauer Library. Total construction costs are estimated at $10 million.

Phase II of Harvard's construction plan calls for addition of an L-shaped building--also for use by the government and economics faculties--sometime in the 1980s.

The entrance to the Kennedy Museum will feature a 30-foot lens-shaped wall, covered by a tapestry and illuminated with light from a skylight. A bust of the late president will stand in front of a glass wall which will overlook the Charles River.

Michael Chermayoff, a museum program consultant, told the Cambridge audience that visitors will then be ushered through a series of exhibits and audio-visual displays detailing the life of President Kennedy and using his administration "to throw light on fundamental concepts and issues in American politics and government."

He called the complex "educational in the best sense of the word."

Interviewed during the City Hall presentation, City Councilor Francis H. Duehay '55 said he had no qualms about the value of the program or design, but would "continue to oppose the project because it is incompatible with the lifestyle of the Harvard square area.