The Cambridge Rent Control Board began hearings yesterday on the University plan to evict tenants from 7 Sumner Rd. and convert the apartments into office space for the Graduate School of Design.

Harvard formally applied last month for a removal permit under a new city ordinance designed to slow the conversion of rental housing to other uses. The University first tried to evict tenants from the building more than 15 months ago.

A lawyer for tenants, Saul Shapiro, said the central issue in yesterday's seven-hour hearing, which will resume Monday morning, was whether converting the four-story apartment to office use would worsen the city's housing shortage.

Tick, Tick, Tick

"It's a very tight rental market, and it is getting increasingly tighter," Shapiro said. "The removal of these 16 units would be a further aggravation to that situation," he added.

Louis A. Armistead, assistant vice president for government and community affairs, and Lorraine Wade, director of tenant relations for Harvard Real Estate, yesterday declined to comment on the matter.

A member of the Ropes and Gray legal team that is representing Harvard, who asked not to be identified, also refused comment, saying "it would be technically improper and disrespectful for us to come out and talk about this."

Hearings in the case should end Monday. The hearing examiner, Margaret Turner, will then prepare a recommendation for the city's Rent Control Board, which will make the final decision in the case.

Hoping

Harvard lost an earlier attempt to evict the tenants under a different rent control statute when a hearing examiner found that several tenants still had valid leases.

Harvard decided to return again to the Board under the new law because "we wanted to try and work within the system," Sally Zeckhauser, president of Harvard Real Estate, said recently.

Only four of the original 16 tenants remain in the building, tenants said.