College Decides to Forego Tiger Stripes on the Quad

The grass will be greener at the Radcliffe Quad this year now that a plan to put orange stripes on the central lawn has been cancelled.

Student distaste--expressed in a meeting last week--for orange grass and impatience to restore the Quad lawn combined to send the "landscape architecture" project back to the drawing boards. Instead, contractors will start laying down normal green sod today and the lawn will be available for use within a week, said project manager Roger J. Cayer.

Although the Office for the Arts had envisioned using the Quad for a series of artistic displays, Director Myra M. Mayman announced Tuesday that the orange stripes will not appear. Mayman's plans would have created in three weeks a zebra-like effect of alternating stripes of orange andgreen grass.

Graduate School of Design Visiting CriticMartha Schwartz's "stripes" plan has drawn firefrom Quadlings ever since its announcement lastmonth.

When Mayman, who is also master of Cabot House,held an open meeting last week to explain theplan, many Quad residents complained that theorange stripes would hinder football games on thelawn.

Earlier this week, a group of North Housestudents presented Mayman with a petition signedby 180 Quadlings asking her to cancel the stripesproject. "We just want the Quad finished. Thelater you plant the grass, the more likely it isto die," said Eric D. Wolff'88, who organized theanti-stripe campaign.

The $32 million Quad renovation project hasalways included plans to replace the grass in thecentral area, and Schwartz had hoped toincorporate her design into the resodding. Theorange color would have faded about three daysafter its installation.

But changes in the Quad construction scheduleadvanced resodding work to this week, well beforethe stripes plan could be implemented, Mayman'smemo said. As a result, Schwartz "will have torethink the project", the memo says.

Mayman could not be reached for comment butOffice for the Arts official Susan A. Zielinskisaid Schwartz and the Office are developing newplans for another display. "Because of ourconsultations with you, [Schwartz's new plans]will be able to take in consideration yourconcerns," Mayman's memo says.

The other two projects, a winter ice labyrinthand a spring bulb planting are still scheduled totake place, Zielinski said. Zielinski added thatstudent opposition to the stripes plan helped toprompt its cancellation.

And Wolff said he thought the petition "waspart but not all of [the reason they cancelled theplan]. The masters really didn't know how studentsfelt."

North House Master J. Woodland Hastings said hewas ambivalent about the project's cancellation"Many contemporary artists on the cutting edgemeet resistance, and it's difficult to distinguishbetween this and concern about the space beingcompromised," he said.

"It is unfortunate that the artist's approachcould not be aired, but maybe one shouldn't cut upthe lawn to do it," Hastings said