Trouble Up Stairs

A lawsuit filed by Up Stairs at the Pudding, a restaurant that occupies the building's top floor, also complicates the College's plans to spend $10 million turning the building into a student theater.

The restaurant has filed suit against the institute, arguing that although the restaurant's lease expires in September, it has a right to extend its lease for another five years.

But the institute maintains that the restaurant does not have that right because it has been in arrears on its rent payments.

The establishment's owners, Mary-Catherine Deibel and Deborah Hughes say they have always paid their rent. Deibel and Hughes have hired an attorney and sent a letter to the community alleging that "Harvard University and the Hasty Pudding Institute are attempting to disregard the extension [of our lease]."

Illingworth said the College expected the restaurant to be out of the building by now.

"The restaurant is a problem," he said last week.

Through a deal made in 1986, Harvard owns the land on which the Pudding building sits. The institute was supposed to pay Harvard for use of the land.