Law School Unveils Plans For New Academic Quad

Harvard Law School (HLS) representatives unveiled tentative plans last night to tear down a dorm and an above-ground parking garage to make way for a new academic quad on the corner of Everett Street and Mass. Ave.

Story Professor of Law Daniel Meltzer, who did much of the talking at the meeting with residents who live near HLS, emphasized that a new quad in Cambridge would alleviate only short-term space needs and would have little effect on the campus’ uncertain future in Cambridge.

Meltzer said the new buildings would have no effect on whether HLS will move across the river to Allston in the long term—a decision that the higher powers in the University have yet to make.

In addition, the new buildings would follow University President Lawrence H. Summers’ mandate that new construction in Cambridge be easily co-opted for other uses, should HLS move to Allston, Meltzer said.

Currently, University-wide committees are looking into two major campus-building options for the University’s land in Allston. One would be to create a “professional campus” across the river, which would likely include the Law School, and the other would be to create a science campus.

But the potential use of the Allston land—either scenario would create an opportunity for a larger Law School—could not come soon enough to take care of HLS’ current needs, Meltzer said.

“That [Allston planning] process is going to take so long. We simply cannot wait to take care of our pressing and immediate space needs,” Meltzer said.

Meltzer enumerated the Law School’s space needs—which include making room for more faculty to cut the school’s student-faculty ratio and creating space for a more student-friendly “college system” for first-year law students.

“We’re already operating at capacity or a little beyond capacity,” Meltzer said.

Elena Kagan, who chairs HLS’ Locational Options Committee, attended the meeting in order to field questions about the Allston possibility.

“We’re obviously not the decision-makers,” Kagan told the group as she explained that the University’s plan for Allston has yet to be made.

Whatever decisions the University makes about Allston will greatly impact Agassiz, the neighborhood which houses HLS and the bulk of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ science buildings.

The tentative plan discussed last night involves tearing down the Everett Street parking garage and the Wyeth dormitory, as well as relocating HLS-owned wood-frame houses, to make way for a new academic quad.

The garage, Meltzer said, would be relocated below ground, while the dorm and wood-frame houses would be replaced in a yet-to-be-determined location.

While several neighborhood residents expressed worries about the impacts of the new quad’s construction, many said they would much rather see HLS buildings than science buildings stay in Agassiz.

“I’d much prefer to see Law School buildings than to see hazardous material labs in the neighborhood,” said Agassiz resident Carol Weinhaus. “That’s better suited to the nature of the community.”

HLS professors have reportedly been averse to making an across-the-river move, and several Harvard heads nodded in support of Weinhaus’ comment that HLS should stay.

“Maybe after all the central administration people left we could make a deal,” Kagan quipped, to the laughter of the Agassiz residents.

Another set of HLS dorms—those created nearly 50 years ago by the father of modern architecture, Walter Gropius—provoked much criticism from both the community and HLS representatives, but the landmark status of the buildings means, according to city law, they cannot be touched.

“They are sort of an albatross for us, but we’re stuck with them,” Meltzer said.

One Cambridge resident said that though the dorms were created by a famous architect, they should be torn down.

“Gropius is long dead and his creation is no monument to him,” said Hernyk Ryniewicz.

Harvard’s Senior Director of Community Relations Mary H. Power moderated the meeting.

—Staff writer Lauren R. Dorgan can be reached at dorgan@fas.harvard.edu.