Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museum (HUAM) James B. Cuno would like nothing more than to build a new University museum on the banks of the Charles River, at the current site of Mahoney's Garden Center.

The new museum is as yet unnamed, unfunded and, for the moment, unapproved. Yet the biggest question about its construction seems not to be if a museum will be built, but rather how many.

One Faculty source says Cuno's idea has become "the plan to beat" in the secretive horse-race to develop one of the last large swaths of available land in Harvard's Cambridge home. In a twist, the contents of the Sackler Gallery could move to a second building on the site--creating a museum complex to rival HUAM's current Quincy Street hub.

But this ambitious project comes at a time when classroom and office space are increasingly scarce on campus.

How the art museum plan became the frontrunner is a story of Harvard politics and fortuitous timing--and an anomaly in the University chain of command.

The Plan

The plan most likely to be approved for the Mahoney's site, along Memorial Drive just east of Western Avenue, involves the construction of a new museum to house the University's collection of contemporary art.

The site would also likely contain some type of performance space, movie theater or offices for student use.

A less certain possibility involves moving the contents of the Sackler Gallery, currently located on Broadway Avenue, to a second museum to be built on the site.

A committee charged with examining potential uses for the site is currently weighing alternatives for the remainder of the site, including a hotel the size of the Inn at Harvard, a conference center, or graduate student housing. A final possibility, to move the contents of the Peabody Museum to the site, seems to have already been ruled out.

"If anything is a foregone conclusion, the museum is because no one has proposed anything that would be better for the main site at this stage," says one source close to the committee.

Uncertain Development

Cuno introduced the notion of a new museum to University President Neil L. Rudenstine several years ago, according to the Faculty source.

The idea first became public at a November community meeting to discuss renovations to the Fogg and Sackler museums.

At that meeting, held primarily to discuss University plans for a tunnel underneath Broadway to connect the Fogg and Sackler museums, Cuno hinted obliquely that he would like to build a museum on the river.