In December, Harvard will start the process by calling a neighborhood meeting to show off the finalized plan and answer questions.

Then, officials will face the Cambridge Historical Commission, the mid-Cambrdge Conservation District, the City Planning Commission and the City Council, selling parts of the plan to each.

The City Council will only be concerned with the tunnel under Cambridge Street. However, if Harvard can't get the approval of any of the other boards--which are concerned with issues including the destruction of Coolidge Hall and the moving of several houses on the site--then that dispute will be referred to the council as well.

Building cannot begin until the approval of all these bodies is secured.

Although segments of the plan for the Knafel center remain controversial in the community, University administrators are confident that the building will go up. Mary H. Power says she believes Harvard's early community meetings, which began in 1997, and flexibility have made for a more receptive community.

"This is an example of Harvard really listening to neighborhood concerns," Power says.

Often in the past, town/gown relations were strained by Harvard's lack of communication, says the Executive Director of the Cambridge Historical Commission, Charles M. Sullivan.

"There was a time not too long ago, when Harvard would go ahead and build whenever they had a right to build," Sullivan says.