Harvard U. Takes a New Look at Expansion Across the River

Drew Faust, president of Harvard University, is reconsidering a planned expansion to a new campus across the Charles River, The Boston Globe reports.

According to the Globe. a $1-billion science complex will proceed as planned. But Harvard officials will reconsider moving undergraduate residences to the area. Faculty members have been concerned about how the expansion will affect the cohesiveness of the Cambridge campus, and they criticized Lawrence Summers, then the university’s president, for not consulting more widely about the plans.

Residents in the Allston neighborhood, where the new campus would be located, also welcome reconsideration of the plan, the Globe notes. They want more benefits for the community from Harvard.

Behnisch Architects, a prominent green-architecture firm, has been picked to design the campus. The firm’s initial concepts have included designing a walkable campus on a human scale.

The reconsideration of the Allston plan closely follows announcement of an expansion by Boston College. Some residents in the nearby Brighton neighborhood were unhappy with those plans.