Also, few of the dorms were accessible to disabled students, and many had available space that was not in a condition to be used.

And nearby in lovely New Haven sat a picture of Harvard's possible future--Yale. Yale the old. Yale the prestigious. Yale the crumbling, as even its own administration and student body admit. The costs of deferred maintenance there created budget deficits that made it necessary to slash departments.

If there is any heart of Harvard's sprawling layout, it is the Yard, where John Harvard, Widener and Memorial Church sit fixedly. A shabby Yard essentially means a shabby Harvard, no matter how beautiful the rest of the University is.

"For a number of years, the University has been working on defining maintenance themes," says Sally Zeckhauser, vice president for administration. "One place that hadn't been addressed were the freshman dorms."

Around 1992, however, the University began to address them--with a vengeance. Managers from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Real Estate and the Planning Group banded together to handle the massive undertaking.

All sixteen first-year dorms, both within the Yard walls and near the Union, were slated for overhauls. The price tag was considerable--according to FAS Director of Planning and Senior Development Officer Phillip J. Parsons, the total estimate for the project runs between $60 and $70 million, if everything goes fairly well.

Some refits were more major than others. Work on Lionel, Massachusetts, Mower and Weld Halls was begun the minute the first-years left their dorms for the summer of 1992.

Massachusetts Hall, where most of the work was exterior, was done by the fall. Lionel and Mower were also livable by the time the class of 1996 arrived to take up residence.

Weld, however, took longer, as it was completely gutted and refitted. It was finally competed at the close of fall semester, at which point all the first-years living in Matthews trekked across the Yard to move into Weld--ironically, Matthews' traditional rival.

Spring semester brought Matthews its own scaffolding and nail-pounding. Meanwhile, the first-years displaced by the renovation were put into 29 Garden St., a Harvard Real Estate apartment complex over the police station. They may be the first large group of first-years more knowledgeable about Hilles and the Currier dining hall than of Lamont and the Union, despite efforts towards shuttle buses on Harvard's part.

Next year will see a repeat of this performance as some first-years move from Penny-packer to Thayer in January, and others are faced with 29 Garden St., says Scott Levitan, assistant vice president for construction and planning at Harvard Real Estate.

Canaday, Holworthy and Grays will undergo renovation during the spring and summer of 1994, as will the interiors of Hollis, Pennypacker and Stoughton. By the end of the summer of 1995, Wigglesworth and the interiors of Strauss and Massachusetts Hall should be marked in the "finished" column.

But the busiest few months lie straight ahead. "This is our most aggressive summer," says Levitan. "Last year offered us the opportunity to understand the systems in the buildings. This year because 29 Garden St. was online and available, we wanted to use the resource."

Work will continue on Matthews through the summer, Levitan says. It, Greenough and Hurlbut will all be complete by the fall. Hollis and Stoughton will undergo exterior renovation, as will Pennypacker. Thayer will be complete at the end of the fall semester.

According to Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Real Estate facilities officials, the changes inside and outside the dorms will be striking. New wooden windows will be installed in most of the dorms, and exteriors will be cleaned and repainted--all in accordance with an agreement with the Cambridge Historic Commission, which had to approve Yard renovation plans.