The Quad Makes a Comeback

Eighteen years may have been needed, but when freshmen received their housing assignments yesterday, the rise of the Radcliffe Quad to equality with its sister houses on the Charles was virtually confirmed.

This week, the 105-odd spaces available in North House went in the first round of the lottery, marking the first time the College's smallest house was filled completely by students who marked it as their first choice.

Last year, Cabot House gained entrance to the select group of houses filled by first-choice freshmen.

As record numbers of Yardlings applied to the three Quad houses as their home for 1989-90, masters and College administrators have good reason to heave sighs of contentment. Cabot, North and Currier Houses--which formerly were seen as exiled territories from undergraduate life that centered between the Charles River and Mass. Ave.--have discovered an unparalleled resurgence that indicates a change in undergraduate life.

"The results speak for themselves," said Robert L. Mortimer, who is associate director for building services in the office of physical resources.

"There are three houses in the Quad," said Jane E. Murphy '89, "We all ride the shuttle together. Since we're more isolated, we form stronger bonds between people who live here." Down at the river, houses are interspersed with Harvard Square, Murphy said.

"It's an integrated house," says Tom B. Mitevski '90, of North. "People say hi, hello, how are you. People are very close. It's not the same feeling in the river."

"Maybe it does take an extra 10 minutes to get there but the renovations make up for it," said Edwin K. Joe '92, who received North as his first choice yesterday.

Indeed, with a social life centering around Cabot's floating club-concert-party Cookin' and a unique sense of community capped by an annual "Quad Fest," some say residential life was made to be "Quadded." "People know that there's always something going on," said Matthew W. Newman '90, Cabot house committee chair.

Excellent Facilities

But social life is not everything--more crucial to members of the Quad are suites and facilities, which according to President Derek C. Bok and Associate Dean of Physical Resources Phillip J. Parsons are the best on campus.

The conversion of the Quad from wall flower to blushing beauty did not occur overnight nor without cost. In fact, the transformation of the beast required a physical facelift worth $32.5 million--concrete facial included.

A comprehensive two-year renovation in 1987 and 1988 reworked the dining halls, offices and a majority of the hundreds of suites in North and Cabot. For four semesters, students and tutors in the houses took turns living in affiliated housing as their rooms were revamped.

The "Quad Mound"

"The worst of it was the jackhammers," said North tutor Barbara Alexander last spring. "Waking up at 7 a.m. in the morning to jackhammers going" and a notorious mud "Quad Mound" at the center of construction made life difficult, but not unbearable, said North House committee chair Thomas B. Mitevski '90.

In the end, new suites with wall-to-wall carpeting, snow-white walls and polished moldings skylights and high-tech furniture made the difference. Also, the new North House offices feature glass enclosures and split levels, while Cabot boasts a spacious, multi-purpose junior common room.

"The administration felt that housing should be improved to the kind of standard of the river houses," said North House Master J. Woodland Hastings. "It worked," he added.

"People weren't choosing to go to the Quad," said Mortimer, who helped direct the renovations. "If we could find some way to increase the amenities in the Quad," he recalled thinking, the image of the houses might change. The result was big common spaces and a balance of singles and suites. "The only thing we couldn't do anything about was the perceived disadvantage of distance."

Shocking Popularity

To most who were randomed into the Quad in earlier years, its new-found popularity arrives as a "shock," said Mitevski. "It reflects a change not inherently but in the way people perceive the Quad."

According to Parsons, that was the goal. Since Radcliffe days dating to the late 1960s, the Quad houses' cold singles off of hallways--intended to preserve the purity of its all-women residents--made living there experiments in social deprivation.

"People had felt isolated at the Quad," Parsons said.

"It makes a difference to the feeling of any house that [students] are not suffering but happy to be there," said Hastings.

As Bok told well-wishers at ribbon-cutting ceremonies of a re-done North last year, changes may well indicate a permanent shift in the balance of popularity.

"By all accounts," Bok said, "I think North House has the most attractive accomodations in all the University." And as the president said, times may prove "the emergence of the new Quad, a triumph of co-residency."