Dust, cinder blocks and cranes block the sidewalk and create detours for pedestrians passing by 51 Brattle St., the new site for Harvard's Division of Continuing Education.

The Summer and the Extension schools, currently housed at 20 Garden St., will move into their new quarters at the end of the summer if the renovations on the red-brick building go as scheduled, according to Kathy A. Speigelman, director of planning for the University.

Speigelman said that the new locale offers more space than the cramped Garden St. offices.

"The 20 Garden St. office has been too small and not accessible to the main classrooms in the Yard," Speigelman said. "For a number of years they have been looking for a space alternative."

Fifty-one Brattle became a feasible alternative for the Extension School in 1988, when new laws gave tax shelter to private property owners selling their land.

In-Lieu-Of-Tax Payments

Speigelman explained that Harvard's purchase removed 51 Brattle from the tax rolls. As part of a recent one million dollar in-lieu-of-tax agreement with Cambridge, the University will pay the city $32,000 over the next 10 years to compensate for lost property revenues.

Spiegelman said that the cost of the renovation--which will include extensive construction--is still undetermined.