New Science Lab Approved

Harvard got the green light to begin construction on a new science building in the North Yard in a unanimous vote of the city’s Planning Board last night.

The approval of the Northwest Science Building marked the culmination of a two-year negotiation process between Harvard planners, residents, and city officials.

The building is one of three new science buildings that together represent the first phase of Harvard’s planned 1.6 million square feet of development of science and Harvard Law School (HLS) facilities in the North Yard. Residents of the Agassiz neighborhood reached an agreement with Harvard officials in December 2003 in which the University will provide the community with millions of dollars worth of benefits in return for the ability to carry out its expansion plans over the next 25 years.

The Northwest building will be located on Oxford Street and will contain research laboratories for an estimated 30 faculty members from various disciplines including biophysics, neuroscience, and bioengineering. The building will total 210,000 square feet above ground and another 260,000 square feet underground.

Preliminary construction has been underway for the last six months, and Harvard hopes to complete the building by the end of 2007.

At yesterday’s meeting, architect Craig Hartman of the San Francisco-based firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill presented the plans for the building, designs which incorporate a number of environmentally-friendly elements.

After the presentation, the board asked Hartman some minor questions regarding project details. But in a departure from the norm, no residents commented at last night’s meeting, which Harvard officials called a signal that the community was well-informed about the project prior to the presentation.

According to Senior Director of Community Relations Mary H. Power, Harvard has stepped up its communication with Agassiz residents and neighborhood representatives in an effort to respond to a perception of unilateral and arbitrary expansion.

“There isn’t a week that goes by without us talking to someone in the neighborhood,” Power said.

“I think we’re seeing the fruit of that active communication,” she added, noting that Harvard representatives have met one-on-one with residents whose property abuts the new building.

Harvard officials congratulated themselves as they exited the meeting.

“You know what this means,” said Power to her colleague Thomas J. Lucey, Harvard’s Director of Community Relations for Cambridge. “We did our job.”

In addition to the construction of the Northwest Science Building, Harvard’s first phase of science expansion in the Agassiz neighborhood will include two other buildings which are farther along in the planning process.

The Biological Research Infrastructure (BRI), an underground structure that will house laboratory mice, was set to be completed in the next few months, according to Power. But a fire in the underground facility earlier this month set back the construction schedule.

Another laboratory facility, the Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering (LISE), has been approved and will be completed in roughly two years, Power said.

The next phase of expansion will focus on HLS. At a meeting of the Agassiz Neighborhood Council last night, Harvard representatives told community members they hope to provide an update on HLS planning within the next several months.

—Staff writer Natalie I. Sherman can be reached at nsherman@fas.harvard.edu.