Seniors ought to take a good look at Harvard Square before they graduate--within four years, it won't resemble much of anything they know now.

Streets are likely to be re-routed. The MBTA Redline may extend to West Cambridge. The John F. Kennedy Library Center, to be built where buses now park across from Kirkland and Eliot Houses, will draw a million new visitors a year to the Square. High rise buildings will stand over Mt. Auburn and Boylston Streets, and a mall will occupy half a block adjacent to Holyoke Center.

The driving force behind the changes is the John F. Kennedy Library Center--and the mood it has created among Harvard Square businessmen, residents and civic groups approximates future shock.

Views

Francis H. Duehay, dean of Admissions and Studies in the Graduate School of Education, local resident, and City Council member, thinks the Kennedy Center "will almost certainly increase congestion to a barbaric extent."

Nancy Brigham, a member of the Cambridge Tenants Organizing Committee, sees the Center leading to rent hikes which will drive low and middle income residents out from surrounding areas.

Cyrus Harvey, owner of the Harvard Square Theater and a leading force behind a local group called Planning For People, sees the Kennedy Center as a "total disaster"--if nearby neighborhoods aren't protected from swarms of visitors and the business district is not integrated with the Center.

Robert Bowyer, head of Cambridge's Department of Planning and Development, worries that the character of the Square may change, turning into that of a tourist center.

Of course, most recognize that the Kennedy Center--a complex including a library, archives, the Kennedy School of Government, the Institute of Politics, and probable "related structures"--may prove to be the greatest blessing to the economic vitality of the Square in this century. But it doesn't ease a fear that the ingredients of success may be botched in the mixing, turning the Square into a nightmarish fusion of traffic clots, tickytac and parking lots, thereby destroying: the small stores and whatever atmosphere attends a college town.

Expected Changes

Changes have been expected ever since the trustees of the Kennedy Corporation--the group overseeing construction of the Center--announced their plan in the mid sixties to move onto the MBTA site. A year ago, the Cambridge Planning Office began assembling a seven-volume master plan to cope with the difficulties thought likely to arise.

Volumes I thought V of the Plan are nearly complete. They review the success of previous planning efforts, planning philosophies, raw census data, traffic flow, and the visual environment of the Square.

Volume VI and VII concerned with the issues peculiar to Harvard Square and the actual plan itself, will not be ready until July 1. But through conversations with Planning Department officials, the following proposals seem likely to emerge in some form:

* Extension of the MBTA subway lime out to Fresh Pond or another point near Alewife Brook Parkway, Traffic studies--largely complete--show that most Mass Ave traffic has at least one endpoint in Cambridge, making extended rapid transit feasible.

* Elimination of some streets and redirection of others, Surprisingly, the planners say, traffic can frequently be handled better on a smaller number of streets because the number of intersections and junctions declines. Planning officials also believe that introducing one-way streets where two-way streets now stand would help to smooth traffic flow.