DiGiovanni Backs Plans For Project

Calling the proposal one of the best he has ever seen, Louis F. DiGiovanni--the man who sold Harvard the land for the planned University Place development--said the Cambridge Historical Commission's decision to endorse the project was very good for the University and the Harvard Square community.

If Harvard had not received final community approval of the University Place proposal by the end of the month, title to the land would have returned to DiGiovanni but he said yesterday he would have had no difficuty developing the site.

"It is a very valuable parcel of land and I have been getting calls from people who were interested in developing the site with me," DiGiovanni said.

DiGiovanni also owns several restaurants in the Square and caused controversy recently when he fired all the gratuity employees at Ferdinand's restaurant after they filed a petition for union representation in response to the firing of the Ha'Penny pub's staff the week before.