Plans Draw Local Ire

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences hasn't hired an architect for the proposed Knafel Center for Government and International Affairs, but Cambridge residents did not hesitate to voice some initial concerns with the project at a public information meeting held last night.

The two-hour forum at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) was organized by the planning committee, which was formed to consider options for a new building to house the Center on the block behind Gund Hall.

Although the committee's list of options, presented by Alex B. Krieger, professor in practice of urban design at the GSD, attempted to accommodate community concerns, most residents could not see beyond a few fundamental differences.

"The volume of this structure is out of keeping with that particular area," one resident said during the meeting's lengthy period of questions and comments.

According to faculty at the meeting, the building or series of buildings that will eventually be built between Kirkland and Cambridge Streets will provide room for roughly 30 professorial offices and will likely have portions as tall as Gund Hall.

Comments from committee members reflected the sensitive nature of the issue.

"Any development at Harvard is an exercise in complex urban planning...priorities abound and they conflict with one another," said Kenneth A. Shepsle, chair of both the committee and the Government department.

But the committee--noting that the Harvard Government Department was recently ranked number one in a national survey-- said that it must improve its physical facilities in order to continue it's fine academic tradition.

"For us the center is a priority in order to make the Government department a unit," said Jorge I. Dominguez, Dillon professor of international affairs.

But articulating their needs and focusing on green space did not prevent the committee from hearing highly emotional comments from neighbors.

"I find it insulting that the highest priority for [your] planning is the green space where your graduate students play frisbee," one resident said.

There were no formal votes taken, but residents almost unanimously disapproved of one proposal which would have put the entire department in one building at the cost of several residences on nearby Sumner Street.

The crowd of Cantagbrigians erupted with applause when a neighbor touched on a sensitive nerve.

"What about the property Harvard has recently acquired in Allston?" one women asked, suggesting that the department move across the river instead.

"I have no answer to that question," Shepsle responded curtly.

But other neighborhood residents--many of whom said the project is likely to go forward regardless of their support--focused on larger questions.

"When is Harvard going to stop growing?" one resident asked.