The Bennett Street transit yards hide their dirty insides from the outer world. A seven-foot wall, smeared with the faded paint of overzealous Dartmouth fans, watches over Boylston Street. A high steel fence stands sentinel on Memorial Drive as the ugly eyes of old subways stare out at passing cars.

Sometime in 1968, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) will evacuate those yards. The walls and fences will come down for good, and the 12-acre area will finally join life in Harvard Square.

"This is not going to be a place of big gates," architect I. M. Pei says of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library that will replace the yard's blacktop and train tracks. "We would fail if the complex is not designed so Harvard students can feel at home."

Pei's central problem is as simple to state as it is difficult to conceive: he must design a library complex which fits naturally into Harvard square and which is, in essence, an integrated part of the University campus; at the same time, this memorial he creates must be dignified and somewhat separate from its surroundings.

Neither aspect can be ignored, for this is to be no ordinary memorial. It will not simply be a museum to be looked at, but also a library and an Institute on Politics to be used actively by students and scholars. The complex should be, Pei says, "a place where young people can be inspired."

Laying the Groundwork

The Kennedy family, not Pei, set these broad guidelines. They desire a memorial that will honor John Kennedy by sustaining the spirit he carried into politics and the presidency. As an architect, Pei can only do so much: he cannot run the Library, nor can he formulate an appealing program for the Institute of Politics. He cannot guarantee that the ideal will become real--or even that it is possible. What he can do is create an environment in which--if the ideal is attainable--it can be achieved.

"I've avoided thinking about it too much," he says. He doesn't want to become tied to any preconceived notion before Massachusetts officially hands over the site. Then and only then will he begin working on the actual job of design.

Some things, however, are already clear. The Library complex will consist of two or three buildings and they will be low, long structures. Pei has yet to determine how closely associated the Library--which will house records and writings on Kennedy's life and administration--and the museum, the greatest tourist attraction, will be. Perhaps he will put them both in one building, perhaps in two. The Institute of Politics will have its own structure, and, whatever the final number of buildings, they will all be connected.

Pei is also firm on the need for "support facilities--parking lots, restaurants, small souvenir shops, for example--right on the Bennett Street site. Here again, the details aren't final and the plans to do more study on exactly what type of "support" the Library requires.

At first, the idea of such facilities so near the Library complex might seem insensitive or even stupid. Pei wants them for a number of reasons, however. Remember a few things: first the Bennett Street site is 12 acres and that's a lot of land. If you don't think so, just walk in some day and start wandering around.

Second, the Library complex is not going to be an isolated island. Had the Kennedy's wanted a rustic memorial, they would never have selected Harvard Square as the site. Pei's job of making the complex a part of the Square is going to be difficult. One way to make it easier, he seems to have decided, is to avoid a sharp demarcation between the city and the complex. Thus, the "support" facilities may act as a sort of transition area.

Half a Million Visitors

And third, Pei wants his "support" facilities (particularly the parking space) to help control the Library's impact on the Square itself. More than a half a million people are expected to visit the Memorial annually, and for that reason alone its effect on the Square is certain to be great.

Traffic, already confused and congested, could become worse. Pei has had a traffic study done and will work with Cambridge officials to case things. But the large implications of the complex's commercial impact remain unanswered. In ten or fifteen years, will the small stores along Mt. Auburn Street near the yards' be replaced with motels or restaurants? Or, perhaps the drawing power of the Library complex will simply move general commercial activity westward? The questions are as interesting as they are illusive, though Pei's insistence on eating places and souvenir shops shows that he is making a few reasonable guesses. (Pei will also ask the Library Corporation to have another study done--this one on the market impact of the Library's presence.)