Harvard's Knafel Center for the social sciences has been on the drawing board for two years, but local residents' opposition has forced numerous changes in the planning.

Now, armed with nearly complete architectural plans, Harvard officials are about to begin seeking formal community approval for Knafel.

Still, more compromises with local groups are likely to be made before the predicted start of construction sometime after 2001.

The project, which began with a $2.1 million gift to the University from Sidney R. Knafel '52, will allow Harvard to consolidate the government department and all of its centers for international study.

The planned center would free up space in Littauer Hall for the economics department and should increase Faculty interaction within the social sciences.

"The Knafel center will allow international study faculty to remain within their centers and still not be remote from their department," explains Mary H. Power, Harvard's director of community relations for Cambridge. "Faculty presence is crucial to the vitality of the centers."

Knafel: the early years

Soon after Knafel's donation, Harvard representatives began speaking to residents around what was then the proposed site--an unoccupied area around Gund Hall.