Next month's dedication ceremony of Gund Hall, the Graduate School of Design's new headquarters promises more than just the pomp and page entry usually associated with such affairs. It will also be a reunion for the cast of characters involved in one of Harvard's most complex scenarios.

Most of the people responsible for the conception Gund Hall back in 1965 are no longer connected with the University. Since the Corporation approved the GSD's request to apply for federal funds, Harvard has welcomed its 25th president, a new GSD and an almost new Design School faculty. Perhaps the only group that stayed with the project from start to finish has been the design firm, Andrews-Anderson-Baldwin of Toronto Canada.

There were times however, when the design team wondered whether the building would ever make it to Dedication Day. The first relationship with the GSD faculty, strained best deteriorate are during the crucial period just before bids went out in 1969. Edward R. Baldwin, who acred as partner-in-charge for the firm, said the most difficult obstacle was obtaining any faculty cooperation at all.

The decision to build Gund Hall was not made by the current faculty. last week from Toranto. A great deal of bitterness existed because of the financial pressures the building created. I had to fight total party of the part of the GSD.

That's not all the design team had to fight. The GSD has had its problems in the past out years. In addition to contending with the general financial squeeze through the University the new Dean, Maurice D. Kilbridge has had grievance, lodged against him by three senior GSD faculty members. A former faculty member Chester W. Hartman '57, is still appealing his dismissal over two years ago. Women at the School have filed hiring complaints with the Department of Health Education and Welfare.

When the building that in body wanted is dedicated on October 12 it will mark the culmination of project that began over seven years ago. In 1965 it be came apparent that Robinson Hall built in 1902--couldn't keep pace with the Design School rate of growth Since 1922 the GSD found it necessary to expand twice to nearby buildings and the concept of a unified Design School under one root no longer existed even remotely.

In 1965 the University secured a federal grant of 52 million--one third of the projected cost-and a faculty student committee was organized to devise a tentative program.

But the committee ran into the first of many long delays. Gund Hall had been scheduled for construction on the site where Hunt Hall stands in the Yard. Its present location--the corner of Cambridge and Oxford Sts opposite Memorial Hall-became open when the University finally purchased the land from a nearby church after many years of tedious negotiations.

The acquisition of the church land, a superior site, meant the University had to resubmit an application for federal aid and repeat its battle with Cambridge over zoning ordinances. The committee also began to revise its plans using the larger site to expand the building to its present size, about 155,000 square feet. While the committee worked out a detailed program, the Corporation made plans to engage an architect. The GSD faculty favored an international competition to select the design firm. According to Jose Louis Sert, dean of the Design School until the summer of 1969. President Pusey disliked the idea of a competition, and the suggestion was scrapped instead, each member of the GSD faculty was asked to submit a list of capable architects.

Although the selection process is unknown, the architect who was eventually hired, John Andrews, studied under Sert and received his degree from the GSD Although Sert refuses to divulge the contents of the list he submitted, he acknowledges great respect for Andrews. "He was one of my most brilliant students," Sert says.

In December 1967, the committee made a full presentation of its proposals to the architect. Three months later, Andrews returned to the Design School, and revealed his preliminary plans to the committee and the Harvard Planning Office (which had been chosen as consultant)

The design development drawings were approved in September 1968 and the architect received permission to complete the construction documents. Although some dissatisfaction had occurred up to this point, the most bungled chapters in the Gund Hall story would be written during the spring of 1969.

Nineteen sixty eight--sixty nine was a year of general turmoil throughout the University. The strike at Columbia University the previous cup many people here. The subsequent bust at University Hall in April 1969 forced such mundane projects as Gund Hall into monetary limbo.

During the early months of 1969 there were rumors that Gund Hall might never be built. A second committee--with an equal number of faculty and students--had been organized to investigate complaints about the project and a three-month inquiry into the feasibility of Gund Hall began. Although the committee eventually reaffirmed the program of its predecessor, the inquiry generated a great deal of bitterness between the faculty, the design firm, and the students.

William A. Doebele, professor of Advanced Environmental Studies and a member of the committee, recalled last week that the entire program of the building came under review. "A great many people thought the project should be abandoned, but the University was committed to it, and we had a federal grant. Many changes were suggested during the inquiry, but since the bid was just about to go out to construction firms, only a few changes were approved. A complete revamping of the design would have involved tremendous expense."