JOHN HARVArd’S J O U R NAL Construction of the Allston science complex will halt. The Charlesview housing site, across Western Avenue (to the right), will come under Har- vard’s control—but development of a proposed arts and cultural hub at this key intersection with North Harvard Street remains a vision for the future. Arrested Development relocated athletic buildings, and other kle: continued analysis of “strategies for re- facilities. sumed activity, including co-development.” Bowing to financial reality, the Uni- This suggests that Harvard is exploring versity announced in December that, as Science Facility Frozen options for a partnership with private expected, it will halt construction on Formal notification came in a letter investor-developers, local hospitals, other its huge science facility in Allston—the from President Drew Faust. Addressing institutional users of laboratory space, or first part of an ambitiously envisioned the science facility first, she wrote that the pharmaceutical companies (which have campus expansion during the next half- University “will pause construction” after made large investments in research fa- century. Moreover, Harvard is in effect completing current work in early spring. cilities in Cambridge and the Longwood rebooting its planning effort for that The letter gave no projected duration for Medical Area in the recent years). expansion overall. That implies a longer the “pause,” and introduced a new wrin- These options are more conservative deferral of Allston development—and raises the prospect of significant chang- IN THIS ISSUE es from the prior vision of new homes for the Harvard School of Public Health 49 Harvard Portrait 55 FAS Narrows Its Budget Chasm (HSPH) and Harvard Graduate School of 50 News from Our Website 56 The Undergraduate Education (HGSE), a cultural and per- 51 Yesterday’s News 57 Sports forming-arts complex, expansive labo- 52 The Corporation Changes 60 Alumni ratories, new undergraduate residences, 53 Brevia 64 The College Pump Photograph by Stu Rosner Harvard Magazine 47 JOHN HARVard’s JournAL than those announced in February 2009, planned (if economic conditions improved out impairing its top credit rating. (A re- when Faust made public the decision to rapidly); reconfiguring the building “in cent debt offering for other construction review construction on the project (esti- ways that yield either new cost savings or was rated Triple A; see “Two Projects mated to cost $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion). new space realization”; and pausing con- Proceeding,” below. But the ratings of Faust said then that the facility’s founda- struction completely. The first option is Caltech, Dartmouth, and Rockefeller Uni- tion would be brought up to surface lev- obviously moot. The second—redesigning versity have been downgraded recently. el—representing perhaps 30 percent of the the facility—is now contingent on the For Harvard, a lower rating would raise construction cost—but that purchases of needs of a possible co-developer. borrowing costs, possibly make large materials needed to build the four labora- The early-2009 decision reflected the interest-rate swaps more expensive, and tories themselves would be deferred while realization that the financial crisis would perhaps hamper some endowment invest- Harvard undertook a thorough review of severely erode the value of the endow- ment strategies.) the project’s scope and pace. The options, ment, as well as curtail Harvard’s ability The recent decision to “pause” and she said, included proceeding as originally to borrow funds for capital projects with- search for partners to restart the project Two Projects Proceeding Midwinter work, under wraps, on In January, the University placed a $480-million debt offering, the Law School’s in part to retire existing borrowings but also for $219 million Northwest Corner building of “project costs,” the majority associated with Harvard Law School’s Northwest Corner building (see “Legal Legroom,” Jan- uary-February 2007, page 61, and “Sun, Wind, and Steel,” Novem- ber-December 2009, page 16N). That 250,000-square-foot proj- ect was well begun before the financial crisis unfolded in 2008, and is being completed; occupancy is expected in the fall of 2011. Although it was anchored by two large gifts raised during that school’s recent capital campaign (of $25 million and a reported $30 million, respectively), the overall costs are estimated to be in the range of $220 million to $250 million, necessitating the financing. (The law school will likely have to begin servicing the debt and paying for operation and maintenance—multimillion- dollar new expenses—in fiscal year 2012.) The other major campus construction—a complete renewal of lion to $400 million—was authorized by the Corporation in De- COURTESY OF HARVARD ART MUSEUM ART HARVARD OF COURTESY the now-moth- cember. Although that decision was not formally announced, ex- balled Fogg Art terior demolition began in late January. Thomas Lentz, Cabot HARRISON JIM Museum, previ- director of the Harvard Art Museum, pronounced himself ously estimated “pleased and relieved” that the work can proceed, given the cost to cost $350 mil- of the “complex” overhaul and prevailing financial conditions. The Renzo Piano-designed project, which will renovate the core building and its antiquated systems, will also yield ad- ditional gallery space and a new entrance along Prescott Street and art-study cen- ters for faculty, student, and visitor use on the upper levels. Previously announced gifts from Emily Rauh Pulitzer, A.M. ’63, and David Rockefeller ’36, G ’37, LL.D. ’69, provided more than $70 million to ad- vance the work. Other financing has not been reported, and fundraising continues. Lentz hopes that—following a planned 36 months of construction and up to a year to move the collections back to the recon- structed facility—the museum can reopen for the fall term in 2013. Renderings of the reconstructed Fogg Art Museum from Broadway at Prescott (up- per left) and Quincy (lower left) streets; the contractors begin. 48 March - April 2010 reflects both the known financial realities and various adjustments the University HARVARD PORTRAIT has made during the past year. The sci- entists once headed to the Allston com- plex are being provided for elsewhere: the stem-cell researchers in Cambridge, and the bioengineering scientists in Cam- bridge and Longwood, while the Medical School’s systems biology department re- mains in Longwood. Those decisions have two consequences: • Given the tens of millions of dollars (and possibly more) needed to refit exist- ing laboratories for the scientists diverted from Allston, and to relocate other pro- fessors to accommodate these moves, it is unlikely the University would want to incur those large costs again, soon, simply to gather stem-cell, bioengineering, and systems-biology staffs in Allston. • Overhead funds paid with sponsored- research grants are an important means of defraying capital costs for laboratory buildings and facilities. With scientists diverted from Allston, and growth in their ranks slowed, the population of investi- gators whose grants would help pay the indirect laboratory costs will be smaller, making it harder to cover additional debt costs that Harvard would have to incur to erect the new Allston facilities. (See “Fur- ther Financial Fallout,” January-February, page 45, for information on the faculty re- tirement-incentive offers and the plan to reduce new professorial appointments, at least within the Faculty of Arts and Sci- Emma Dench ences.) Faust’s letter said that “Harvard’s significant momentum in the life sciences” “I was very morbid as a child,” says Emma Dench, professor of the classics and of will “in no way” be slowed by the delay in history. “I liked dead things and dead people”—and when she visited the Roman the Allston science complex, and that fac- baths in Bath, England, at seven, she says, “I realized the Romans were very, very ulty recruiting will continue. But the tra- dead.” Obsessed with them, she walked the 73.5-mile length of Hadrian’s Wall with jectory has clearly changed. her family at age 11. Today she teaches Latin writers like Livy and Cicero and history According to a News Office interview courses on the Roman empire. Dench’s father is the noted Shakespearean actor with executive vice president Katie Lapp, Jeffery Dench (her aunt is film star Dame Judi Dench) and her mother, Betty, was a who oversees Allston, “We expect to take speech therapist. (As a child, Emma played Peaseblossom in a 1968 film of A Midsum- the next year to look at possible oppor- mer Night’s Dream.) The family lived near Stratford-on-Avon. Dench graduated from tunities, including co-development with Wadham College, Oxford, with a double first in 1987, then taught classics for a year private partners or other institutional at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York, which proved to her partners that may make sense for that site, that she is “a city person.” She returned to Oxford and took her D.Phil. in 1993; her as well as for other Allston sites that Har- dissertation, on “central Italian mountain men,” appeared as From Barbarians to New vard owns.” The last phrase points to the Men in 1995. (Romulus’ Asylum, on the multiethnic character of ancient Rome, came larger Allston program. out in 2005.) Dench taught ancient history at the University of London’s Birkbeck College from 1992 until 2006, and joined the Harvard faculty in 2007. She and her Campus Planning Paused husband, artist Jonathan Bowker, have a 10-year-old son, Jacob. Every summer they Broader “campus development,” Faust’s travel, typically in Central America. “I hate the Romans—they were violent, sexist, letter said, “will be pursued as resources racist, arrogant, and not very nice to anybody who got in their way,” she says.