Parcel lb Set for Spring Construction

They stopped plans for a Kennedy Memorial in Harvard Square and they blocked a project that would have resembled twin Holyoke Centers. But yesterday those same community organizers joined hands with a Boston real estate firm to formally announce what will become the largest business complex in the Square.

The $75-million project--which will be known as Charles Square--includes hotel, retail, and residential space on a four-acre site behind the Kennedy School of Government and along Memorial Drive.

At a reception yesterday at the K-School, developers and community protesters put their arms around each other in a show of private-public sector cooperation.

It was a scene that would have been unthinkable five and a half years ago. When the developer, Carpenter and co., began its involvement with the property known as Parcel lb.

"Dick Friedman president of Carpenter an I could rarely talk to each other." Dean Johnson, one of the most active community organizers, said yesterday.

How the developers and residents overcame their mutual distrust is a story that both groups say may hold important lessons for other growing cities.

The Parcel lb story actually began in October 1963, when President John F. Kenndy 40' visiting in Cambridge, selected Parcel lb as the site for his future library and memorial Kennedy hoped the library would be "closely associated" with his alma mater.

By 1975, Kennedy family members and library corporation officers had instead decided to locate the memorial on Boston's Columbia Point near the University of massachusetts Boston.

The Kennedy library had been forced out of the Square by neighborhood groups who were concerned about increased traffic from tourists. It was an emotional fight, and much bitterness remained as private developers began biding, in 1977, for the right's to develop then available Parcel lb.

Carpenter and Co was selected from a group of six semi-finalists but community groups were again unhappy with the plans. They criticized Carpenter's proposed project as too heavily based on office and retail uses, which they said would generate the same traffic that had doomed the Kennedy project.

The groups, including the Harvard Square Defense Fund and the Neighborhood 10 Association filed a law suit that threatened to tie up the land for another decade.

Throughout 1980, however, developers and residents began a slow process of getting to know each other's concerns. Repeatedly negotiating with each other and city officials, the groups were able to accept a complete redesign of the project, which now emphasizes residential and hotel space.

The new design they agree, is shorter less massive, and better integrated with its surroundings which include Harvard's $25 million University place office and residential project.

The community groups were educated about our problems and we came to understand theirs "John I Hall II executive director of Carpenter said yesterday. "Once we learned to trust each other and not be allowerd the project was on its way, Hall added

Construction is expected to began late April on early May and may be completed about two years later.

The project will include 300 hotel rooms and 86 luxury condominiums and 700-car garage 40,000sq ft of retail space and 110,000 sq. ft of office space.

It will generate about 100 construction jobs and 750 permanent jobs, developers.

Yesterday, a crowd of about 150 including city councilors, state representa- tives and senators, and Gov elect Michael S Dukakis--listened as Richard Friedman tried to be together Parcel lb's long history.

"I think President Kennedy would be proud of how it's turned out," he said. Because "people talking to people" and "the democratic process" were used to bring the opposing groups together, "this will be a living memorial to him.