Upkeep The Houses

In an email sent last Wednesday, the Winthrop House masters announced that Winthrop will be the fourth House to undergo construction (and the second to undergo full renovation) as part of Harvard’s multi-billion dollar House Renewal project. Its renovation, due to take place in 2016-17, will follow a one-year pause in construction after work on Dunster in 2014-15. Although the prospect of modernized upperclassman housing is an exciting one, it is crucial—especially for a project of such magnitude—not only to assess and learn from past projects but also to develop strategies by which to maintain high-quality facilities into the future.

A need for upkeep and restoration is to be expected in century-old buildings, but the scope of the problem in houses such as Winthrop is unacceptable. Residents report the presence of cockroaches, non-functional electrical outlets, and disintegrating window frames. Harvard’s unparalleled yield and the disconnect between freshman and upperclassman housing reduce the importance of high-quality facilities as a draw for prospective students, but this is not a justification for allowing facilities to rot—in some cases literally. Regular maintenance in future years would serve both to make incremental improvements to House conditions in the short-term and to reduce the severity of the need for another major renovation project many years down the line. The bottom line is that Harvard housing should not be permitted to reach Winthrop’s current level of disrepair. Winthrop is a beautiful house with a wonderful layout and an impeccable community. The upkeep of its physical plant should reflect that.

We opined in September on the renovation of Old Quincy (now Stone Hall) and continue to believe that while it was an overall success, it is a project to be improved upon rather than repeated. Despite the beauty of the renovated space, its replacement of some traditional suites and their private common rooms with “cluster common rooms” along hallways was met with a lukewarm reception and even outright criticism. With suite-style living so integral to the upperclassman experience, it is important that future restorations take student feedback into account and enhance current suite-style arrangements instead of removing them altogether.

Between the renewal of the Houses and the planned Allston expansion, it is certainly an exciting time to be at Harvard. However, to make this experience as constructive as possible for the university and students alike, it is imperative that upcoming renovations both look back on and learn from those of the past and develop strategies going forward—such as more frequent and thorough House maintenance—to avoid the issues that necessitated this project in the first place.