The College expects to take next year to plan for an overhaul of the building, and then likely begin construction in the 2001-2002 academic year.

The takeover comes at a crucial point for Harvard's undergraduate performance groups, as stage space is highly sought after and soon to grow scarcer.

Undergraduates are guaranteed access to Agassiz Theatre, owned by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, until 2004. But when the agreement between the College and Radcliffe expires, it is possible that the Institute could claim the space for itself.

But administrators at the Institute said this year that they do not foresee taking over Agassiz entirely.

"It's not part of our immediate plan," said Acting Dean of the Institute Mary Maples Dunn.

Aftermath of the Merger

Students are not the only ones who may ultimately be left looking for space by the Harvard-Radcliffe merger.

Radcliffe is set to take over Byerly Hall in 2006, when the lease runs out on the admissions offices of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS).

Radcliffe has plans to move in as soon as admissions moves out, which has left administrators looking for a new home for the admissions offices.

"When their time is up in Byerly, we're definitely going to take over," Dunn said.

The most likely place an admissions office could go is the currently ill-used Hemenway Gym on the edge of the Harvard Law School (HLS) campus.

HLS put $150,000 of new equipment into the gym this spring, since mostly HLS students frequent the worn building.

But the gym is owned by FAS, and with its proximity to the Yard and leafy green surroundings, Hemenway would be an ideal new home for College admissions.

"Space in close proximity to Harvard Yard is more valuable than money," said David A. Zewinski '76, associate dean for physical resources and planning in FAS.

In fact, FAS came very close to converting Hemenway to an office space for admissions and financial aid in 1998. Instead, FAS renegotiated its lease on Byerly with Radcliffe.

Though a renovated Hemenway would be too small to house the admissions offices of both the College and the GSAS, Marlyn McGrath Lewis '70-'73, director of undergraduate admissions, said there is no need for the two offices to be together.