Allston Scenarios A Must For Planning

Harvard Law School (HLS) faculty may have voted two years ago to object to moving to Allston—but that does not mean it will not happen under new University President Lawrence H. Summers.

Nothing can be ruled out when it comes to physical planning, Summers says.

And the law school’s not the only one getting the message—Summers’ has stressed this theme in his early meetings with representatives of Harvard’s various schools.

“I don’t think any options have been taken off the table,” Summers says of the possibilities in Allston during an interview this week.

As a result, Summers says he is asking individual schools not to limit the University’s future Allston options while planning for new building on Harvard’s existing campus.

“What I have made clear to each of the schools is that this is so salient and large an opportunity, that while we have not made any decision about how [the land] will be used, all major planning decisions from this point forward will have to contemplate how they will work out under different scenarios for Allston,” Summers says.

Administration sources say “adaptability” is one of the central administration’s chief concerns. They say Summers and other central planners want to make sure that buildings currently in planning stages could be adapted and used by another faculty if a school, or parts of a school, were to move to Allston.

The central administration has long been responsible for assuring that individual faculties’ building plans fit with the overall goals of the University.

But while former University President Neil L. Rudenstine had to deal with the land purchases in Allston and the “pre-planning planning” for the land, it is under Summers’ direction that the first wave of concrete decision about Allston will occur—and with it the first chance for these plans to be preempted by decisions made by individual schools.

“We need to think through the appropriateness of [proposed] buildings, given that there will be decisions made about Allston in the future,” Summers says.

Summers and others say that any plans for schools to move are years—and billions of dollars—in the future, and administration sources say that such moves would only come after earlier priorities which include building museums and graduate student housing in Allston.

First Trial

The law school has been one of the prime recipients of Summers’ “keep options open” message this summer.

The school’s recently formulated strategic plan, a document that spells out plans to revamp various aspects of the school, requires a large capital campaign and would mean further North Yard building.

Summers met last month with law school administrators and faculty about the school’s strategic plan, which has awaited the approval of the president and Governing Boards since last December.

In the course of discussion, and in other informal conversations with HLS faculty since, Summers the law school needs to consider how its buildings fit under all scenarios in Allston, including one in which HLS moves across the river.

Faculty and administrators present at the meeting would not comment on Summers’ exact message.

And despite the appearance that such a request could delay the approval of the law school’s strategic plan, those present at the meeting say this was not the case.

Summers also says that he is not looking to slow the plans of HLS or other schools.

“The position is not that nothing can take place [in Cambridge] until the Allston issues are resolved, but that rational planning means recognizing that there are different possibilities, making sure that we don’t do things that are imprudent due to the uncertainties we face,” Summers said.

But Summers did say that further consideration of HLS’ plans would occur before their approval.

“There is a lot of appreciation for everything that has gone into the plan [but] there are various refinements under way, and issues being addressed,” Summers says.

Charles Fried, Beneficial professor of law who other HLS professors say was a key player in the faculty’s vote against moving to Allston, says that Summers’ concern for adaptability is not unexpected—and not unreasonable.

“The idea would be that whatever is built does not absolutely foreclose anything as far in the future as 30 or 40 years,” Fried says. “We’re talking way down the line, and circumstances do change.”

However, some professors said that the fact that Summers’ has asked HLS to even consider Allston scenarios in their immediate decision-making could raise hackles.

“Most on the faculty consider an HLS move to Allston to be a dead letter, and would be unnerved to find that the administration thinks otherwise,” Weld Professor of Law Charles R. Nesson says.

A University Decision

HLS is only the most immediate case in which planning for Allston will have a tangible effect on current plans.

Nor is HLS necessarily the first case of physical planning to be affected by Allston, administrators note. Harvard Business School has in recent years oriented its growth towards Allston—the school’s new Spangler center is the first Harvard building to look towards the still undeveloped Allston campus.

Summers says he is continuing University-wide consultation about the future of the Allston campus.

HLS’ faculty vote and other forms of faculty input will be an important part of the overall picture, Summers says.

“It’s very, very important to take account of the faculties’ assessments of what will best serve their students, their needs, their components of the institution,” Summers says.

However, he indicates that final decisions on planning for Allston will come from the University’s center.

“Ultimately, these are judgments to be made by the President and Corporation,” Summers said.

—Staff writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.