Most agree that Harvard is a good landlord but underlying that observation is the knowledge that the University is not in the real estate business as a hobby. Rather, by owning residential buildings. Harvard can practice what is commonly known as "land-banking." "There is no open land available in Cambridge, so we have to acquire buildings to get the land." Hill points out. The most recent acquisiton that may be used this way in the future is the property just behind the Graduate School of Design (GSD) on Summer Road. In the last year, Harvard bought all the apartment buildings on the lot. If the need arises to provide more housing of facilities for the GSD, it would be a good location, Hill says. And, in the event that Harvard builds there, the University will relocate the present tenants, he adds.

A similar project took place when the University built Mather House eight years ago. Harvard owned the buildings on the construction site, and found new homes for the tenants who saw their homes razed to make way for the new dorm. However, residents of Peabody Ave., took matters into their own hands five years ago, and successfully down-zoned the property adjacent to nearby Putnam Ave., thus limiting the space Harvard would have to build another dormitory. But Hill says the University is still considering construction of another dormitory in the vicinity of Putnam Ave. With the possibility of a full-merger between Harvard and Radcliffe and the fulfillment of a one-to-one undergraduate sex ratio in mind. "We haven't yet excluded the possibility of building in front of Putnam Ave.," Hill says. In fact, he adds, if Harvard builds another House, it will probably be on University property near the down-zoned parcel.

Harvard, in fact, is always buying and selling property. "Land is the only thing that matters," says John Rumley of Hunneman Realty Corporation, which manages most of Harvard's real estate. For the past three years, however. Harvard has been following the acquisition boundaries set forth in the Harvard Long-Range Development Plans. The current plans were proposed in 1975; and Hill says that Harvard has not bought any property outside the boundaries they prescribed. He adds, though, that the plan will be reviewed again in 1980, as long-range plans are not good forever.

The first long-range plan was published in 1960 by the Corporation and is, for the most part, similar to the report published in June 1974. The latter document, however, contains the boundary lines that Charles U. Daly, then vice president for government and community affairs, proposed in an October 1972, report to the community.

Drawning up the current plans was a difficult project, according to Supratik Bose, manager of long-range planning, who wrote the report. There are many internal planning issues that have not been stated in the long-range plan because it was a public document, Bose says, citing such minor projects as building renovations and determining where to place bicycle racks on the campus. Bose says that while he was writing the report, he wanted it to be more specific, and also to include an in-house document. Most Harvard officials were not keen on the idea, he says.

City Councilor Saundra T. Graham, who is notorious for her stands against Harvard building proposals such as the Kennedy Library complex--which citizens of Cambridge succeeded in blocking--says the University, has only provided a long-range plan, not a master plan. Although she admits that issues relating to Harvard's development have been comparatively quiet for the past several years, she attributes that to the way the University works. "They just lay low and quietly buy property while people are unaware," Graham says. From her point of view, and that of her constituents in Cambridge-Riverside, Harvard offers little to Cambridge. She says the University, which pays $1.53 million in taxes and $507,000 in lieu of tax payments annually, does not offer enough advantages for the relatively small amount it has to pay.

This is an election year, and politicians will undoubtedly be campaigning heavily against Harvard, because they can get a lot of votes that way. But Harvard is always quietly making plans. It is inevitable that there will be more buildings, because, after all, Harvard will continue to be Harvard for a long time.