Harvard Dedicates New Gov Building

The University celebrated the culmination of its long quest to establish the Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS) Friday afternoon, as dozens of donors and Harvard affiliates gathered in the lobby of the center’s Knafel building for a dedication to celebrate the new complex.

Sidney R. Knafel ’52, the building’s namesake, jump-started Harvard’s effort to unite faculty from the Government and History departments and nearly a dozen centers of international study with a $15 million gift almost nine years ago.

The complex, situated east of Memorial Hall on the border of University property and the mid-Cambridge neighborhood, is vastly different from the initial blueprints. Evolving plans and stiff community opposition drove up cost and time estimates.

But on Friday, the focus was on Knafel, a managing partner at investment firm SRK Management. University President Lawrence H. Summers credited him with helping create a center to confront global issues and foster greater communication.

“There is never a quid pro quo whenever Sid Knafel is concerned,” Summers said in remarks delivered in the Knafel Building’s modern atrium, a blend of curved and straight lines. “Generations of students and faculty owe an immense debt of gratitude to Sid Knafel.”

Knafel said in a speech that he believes current events make today an appropriate time for the center to begin its work. He cited the use of military force in international issues and an “elected civil servant closing his mind” to others as problems for international study to consider.

“I’m saddened because I think relationships in the world are deteriorating,” Knafel said in an interview after his remarks. “The [military] approach we’re using has created more issues than it has resolved.”

The dedication was preceded by a trumpet fanfare—an excerpt from Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique—performed by Darryl J. Campbell ’06, Michael P. Corayer ’06, and Scott M. McKinney ’09, members of the Harvard Band.

The dedication celebrated the completion of CGIS after a long and arduous process of negotiating with the City of Cambridge and neighborhood activists about the size and location of the complex. In his remarks, Summers acknowledged that the project had faced “a certain amount of political dust and heat.”

Harvard and the community also sparred over the University’s failed plans to construct a tunnel under Cambridge Street which would link the two main CGIS buildings. The city had demanded $10 million in compensation from the University, while Harvard offered a package administrators valued at about $5 million. After a year of negotiations, Harvard scrapped the plan in 2003.

In an interview, Knafel said he was saddened by the delays because they meant lost time during which students and faculty could not communicate with their counterparts in the social sciences.

“The extended time, to some extent, is deplorable,” Knafel said. “What we had today, we could have had four years earlier.”

But the long discussion process ultimately produced a center that is “a blending between the University and the community,” said the project’s principal architect, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners’ Henry N. Cobb ’47.

While Harvard initially pegged the cost for CGIS at $30 million, the price tag swelled to $140 million as construction plans became more ambitious, according to Government Department Chair Nancy L. Rosenblum, who said she could not confirm the figure.

David A. Zewinski ’76, associate dean for physical resources and planning at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), declined to comment on the project’s total cost or the $140 million estimate. The increased cost is expected to contribute to a deficit for FAS this year, according to projections.

Costs also rose as Harvard modified its plans to reflect community demands. For example, to minimize the visible size of CGIS, more than 40 percent of the space is underground, Cobb said.

“The cost of the building reflects the things the University needed to do to make the project a good neighbor for the community,” Cobb said. “I would like to believe that it was worth what it cost.”

Knafel, who is also a Crimson editor, originally pledged $15 million in 1996 to fund the center and later added another $11 million.

Originally, the entire complex was to bear his name, but as a result of the project’s increased scope, his name now adorns only one of its two anchor buildings. Naming rights for the other building are still available to donors.

Concluding the dedication, Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby noted that the Knafel Building’s counterpart is simply called “South Building.”

“Let me pause and let you think about that opportunity,” he said.

—Staff writer Nicholas M. Ciarelli can be reached at ciarelli@fas.harvard.edu.