The portion of the capital campaign devoted to building projects will both make old structures suitable for modern use and erect buildings that will serve new needs.

Harvard has pledged to renovate Widener Library, Harvard Hall, Holden Chapel and University Hall, rebuild the clock tower atop Memorial Hall, construct a home for its newly inaugurated center for Genomics and Proteomics, and revising its plans for the Knafel Center for the Social Sciences.

The Widener project is by far the most ambitious, pegged at $52 million.

Because of heat, humidity and sunlight, book decay has long been a problem for Harvard's largest library, which does not have a climate control system in the stacks.

The project will add air conditioning, a sprinkler system, a new fire detection system and two new reading rooms to Widener. The University plans to begin the renovation sometime after Commencement and will erect a sky crane at the Mass. Ave. gate near Wigglesworth.

The University Hall renovation--expected to cost between $8 and $10 million--is largely aimed at bringing the building into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and will add an elevator to the north side of the building. In addition, the project will include an overhaul of the heating and electrical systems and will add slightly more office space.

Early last fall, amid protests from local residents, Harvard agreed to go back to the drawing board for the Knafel Center, a new building intended to house programs in government and international studies.

The center, slated for construction in the neighborhood of the Swedenborg Chapel, was seen by some Cantabrigians as an example of insensitivity to the local community, which uses extensively the small park in the area the Center would be built. The University agreed to amend its plans for the Center in light of the bad blood unleashed by its secret purchase of acres of land in Allston two years ago.

Less than four months after unveiling plans for a $200 million science initiative in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the University had selected an architect, location and preliminary design plans for a $25 to $30 million life science center, which will house the newly-created Center for Genomics and Proteomics.

Current plans call for the 50,000 square foot building--roughly the size of University Hall--to connect to the new Naito Chemistry Laboratory, which will itself be completed in September.

This year, Harvard also revealed plans to build a $6 million office and retail building on the site of the Harvard Provisions Company and Skewers restaurant.

And over the year, Harvard literally plowed ahead with the $20 million Maxwell-Dworkin computer science and electrical engineering building, which is being paid for by gifts from computer giants William H. Gates III, Class of 1977, and Steven A. Ballmer '77, also a former Crimson executive. The building, named for the donors' mothers, Mary Maxwell Gates and Beatrice Dworkin Ballmer, is being built on a site near the law school.

In the Spotlight

The resignation of Divinity School Dean Ronald F. Thiemann attracted national media attention--months after the thousands of pornographic images found on his computer led to his departure. The images did not include child pornography or any other illegal type.

In November he told the school community he was leaving for "personal and professional" reasons after 13 years as dean.