The completed plan will be submitted to the City Council in early fall, following review by Kennedy Center officials and a task force of residents, civic leaders, and merchants.
Contours of the Kennedy Center are somewhat more cloudy. About two acres of the 11-acre site will be given to Harvard for the Kennedy School of Government. A large plaza, called Commonwealth Plaza in appreciation of Massachusetts' grant of the MBTA land, will extend over much of the area. Open air parking for at least 600 cars, and more probably 1000, will be provided by the Library. The ceremonial entrance to the Center will stand at the corner of Memorial Drive and Boylston Street.
But size and placement of buildings remain undecided. And the status of "related structures" for the site--apartments, a hotel, or luxury stores--appears less and less certain.
According to Bowyer, Kennedy Corporation officials had planned to use piles now supporting MBTA buildings for the related structures. Last month, however, soil engineers working with architect I.M. Pei found the old piles to be useless and new piles prohibitively expensive. Consequently, Bowyer said, related structures aside from a restaurant and souvenir shop would be a 'second-stage' project, when more money will be available.
Bowyer said that the cost of the second-stage project might be lowered by combining an underground garage with the related structure complex, thereby eliminating the need for piles altogether. Such a complex would "float" in the marshy subsoil, but would be limited in height to six or eight stories.
Across from the Harvard Square Post Office, adjacent to the Library site, plans are definitely underway for a high-rise building. Kanovas Corporation intends to plant a 19-story structure on the site and has already received permits needed to begin excavation. Planning Department officials report that Kanovas is considering construction of a Holiday Inn.
About eight blocks from the Square, near William James Hall, an even taller building appears imminent. Harvard recently announced plans to build a 22-story tower and six four-story townhouses, for University affiliated families, on a wooded five-acre site known as the "Shady Hill Estate." Opposition to the project seems certain: already, the Cambridge Conservation Commission, low-income housing advocates, and local residents have expressed dissatisfaction with the development. Because of the controversy, construction will probably not be completed in the scheduled two-year period.
A third highrise will loom on Boylston Street, midway between the Kennedy Center and the center of the Square. Soil engineers, contracted by Cambridge landlord Max Wasserman, are testing the peat and clay subsoil to determine what size structure the ground can economically support. The land is zoned for both office space and housing; given the relative surplus of office space in the Boston area, the choice will probably be housing.
One of the engineers guesses that ten stories would be a probable height for the structure, an estimate confirmed by a planning department official after talks with Wasserman. Wasserman, however, has not announced his intentions for the site.
Other Wasserman projects have provided most of the signs to date of the Square's impending transformation.
Rent hikes from 100 to 400 per cent have driven over 18 small businesses from Wasserman property. Renovation--exterior and interior--of buildings along Mass Ave. Mt. Auburn and Boylston Streets has updated some of Harvard Square's oldest buildings. And Wasserman has pioneered in developing unified designs for abutting stores, such as Cahaly's and Tommy's Lunch.
Wasserman's most expensive Harvard Square development currently underway consists of changing a sizeable garage, at the corner of Mt. Auburn and Boylston Streets, into a shopping mall. The mall, tentatively to be named "the Garage," will contain specialty and craft shops and spread over half a block. A pedestrian walk will connect Boylston Street to Dunster Street. Work on the Garage has been in progress since winter, and the mall should open for occupancy this fall.
The effect of the Kennedy Center, then, will clearly be staggering. It has already sparked a construction boom of awesome power--a boom which will look insignificant when compared to the commercial explosion expected to attend the Center's opening. Tax-ridden Cantabrigeans are likely to appreciate a new sluice of tax revenues, and some consumers may prefer modernized shopping areas.
Equally clearly, the problems will be immense. The character of the Square--already more commercial and chain-store oriented--will move progressively away from specialty stores and coffee shops. Parking will become harder. Driving through the Square will probably become a task of stupendous proportions. Tenants will have to bear higher land values, which will ultimately translate into higher rents, and live with a new skyline. Pedestrian traffic will swell by as much as half or two thirds.
But, barring acts of God or a radical sweep of city elections, the transformation of Harvard Square is unstoppable. Whether the class of '72 spends its fifth reunion in a honky-tonk tourist trap, or a thriving, accessible, commercially diverse Harvard Square, will be known--soon.
Parking will become harder. Driving will probably become a task of stupendous proportions. Pedestrian traffic will swell by as much as half or two thirds.
The development may turn the Square into an ugly fusion of traffic jams, parking lots and tickey-tac.