Harvard Drops Plans to Build Fogg Museum Bridge Extension

Bowing to opposition from neighborhood residents, Harvard officials have decided to abandon plans to build an overhead bridge connecting the Fogg Art Museum to its recently constructed extension, the Arthur M Sackler Musuem.

"We decided not to petition the City Council to release the air rights over Broadway [Street] to construct this bridge." Director of Community Relations Jacqueline O'Neill said last week about a decision the University formally announced earlier this month.

The 18-foot-wide and 150-foot-long connector would have made transporting pieces between the two buildings--which will operate as one museum--less of a security risk, Fogg officials said.

But it also would have been an eyesore, according to some neighborhood residents, including City Councillor David E. Sullivan, who labelled the proposed design "hideous--like a Cyclops staring at the neighborhood."

At an April 24 meeting of the Mid-Cambridge Neighborhood Association, residents in attendance split sharply over the issue, voting 98 to 74 against the connector.

Though the vote was not binding, the demonstrated opposition quelled the University's enthusiasm for the project.

"I understand the reasoning, there's such opposition and the University is determined to be a good neighbor," said John M. Rosenfield, acting director of the Fogg.

Another factor may have been Harvard's reluctance to face another close vote with the City Council. "It's hard to say how the councilors would have voted," said O'Neill

Sullivan said he sensed votes flowing against the Harvard plan. "I had been lobbying pretty heavily on the City Council against it. And I think that's one of the reasons they [Harvard] decided not to go through with it," he said.

Plans to open the Sackler addition--built at a cost of more than $15 million--this fall remain on schedule, and Rosenfield said be remains hopeful that an overhead bridge may be two or three years down the road.

O'Neill said, "Everybody's sort of taking a hiatus from the issue. It doesn't have to be decided immediately."

Presently, there are no definite plans to commission alternate designs, officials said.