What To Do When There's Not House Renewal Construction

This week, Harvard announced that Winthrop will be in line after Dunster for House renewal, but it’s going to take a break from construction on any House in the 2015-2016 academic year first. Since we know students will miss being awoken in the early morning by the sounds of jack hammers, Flyby came up with a few ideas for projects that Harvard could pursue in the meantime.

First, Harvard could expand its valiant effort to become the most chair-friendly university in the country. Chairs already populate the Yard, the Science Center plaza, and a lot of classrooms, but certainly there is more work to be done. How about chairs in the hallways? Chairs on Widener steps? You never know when you might suddenly want to sit down.

Or perhaps Harvard could erect a statue in honor of construction itself, consisting of a permanent scaffolding around a heap of construction materials. The statue could be placed in an area of maximum foot-traffic, such as the space in front of the John Harvard statue, to honor the inconvenience of campus construction.

In an effort to address the ongoing conversation about managing student stress levels, Harvard could build some unexpected recreational facilities. Maybe a jungle gym, microbrewery, skate park, or bouncy house. These projects would certainly be welcomed with open arms (by students, at least, though maybe not administrators).

Here’s one last possibility: the Science Center’s exterior looks a bit like a Polaroid camera, but that’s outdated, as Polaroid cameras have been arguably obsolete for a few years now. Perhaps the new structure could be built to look like an iPhone camera. That seems more culturally relevant.