While it is unclear if erosion is slated to take the Charles up JFK Street, alternative explanations from Harvard administrators may validate Holland's claim.

Joe Wrinn, director of the Harvard News Office, also sees water figuring prominently in the University's future.

"A hundred years from now I think the campus will look a lot different, and I think the river will basically be the center of it because there is nowhere else to expand except across the river," Wrinn says. " I think a snapshot a hundred years from now will show that the river will divide the campus the same way that Mass Ave. or maybe Oxford Street does now."

The University's director of community relations for Cambridge, Mary H. Power, has watery images as well.

Power sees "the beautifully restored Memorial Hall tower ruling over Harvard because William James has long since been demolished," describing the tower as "oasis in the Charles River basin, which is now much, much larger due to the effects of global warming."

Holland also predicts that Harvard Yard will be preserved more or less sacrosanct for the next century.

"Harvard will always stick to their traditional buildings...I'm seeing the city grow around Harvard," he says.

Harvard administrators feel the same way.