College Plans Quad Facelift, Aims for NoHo Dining Hall

As workmen continue to refurbish Dunster, Eliot, and Kirkland Houses this week, Harvard is considering blueprints for the next phase of Harvard's House renovations: upgrading the dorms at the Radcliffe Quadrangle.

Official are still reluctant to name the price of the proposed facelift for the dorms comprising North and Cabot Houses, but they say they expect to decide on the designs by the beginning of July, with work to begin next spring, according to R. Thomas Quinn, associate dean of facilities.

Plans included the construction of a dining hall for North house to replace the two small dining halls which currently exist and restructuring the rooms to include more suites, added Quinn.

Knocking down walls or partitioning the larger rooms is one possible way to convert single rooms into suites, Quinn said. "Duplex" suites which would span the fourth floor and attics of a dorm is another option being considered, he added.

Money has been the biggest issue involved in deciding how much will be renovated, Quinn stressed Because the work is more structural than the more cosmetic work applied to the River Houses, the cost coulds exceed the budget of around $50 million allotted for House renovations three years ago, Quinn added.

"The renovations at the Quad will be more expensive per square foot than the ones at the River," Quinn said, adding, "It's more of restoration work at the River and renovation work at the Quad."

Because of the extent of the renovations, the work may take two or three years to complete so as to minimize the amount of inconvenience to students. Last year, students in Adams House complained when the spring term found them awakening to the sound of jackhammers.

The House renovations which have included Winthrop, Lowell and Adams Houses and Cleverly Hell marks the first time the structure have been renovated since the 1930s, when most of there were built.

If renovated, North House, built in the late 40s,would be the only exception to the College's push to renovate pre-World War II buildings, according to Quinn. "North House posed real problems because the dinning hall was too small, and it is the oldest of the newer buildings," he said.