Cott said the Hollein project would be "the best new building to be built in the Square in my lifetime."

The presentation was complemented by a large model of Harvard Square and a number of photo-realistic computer renderings of the building in its 90 Mt. Auburn St. location, next to the Fox Club and the J. Press building. A planned video walk-through simulation was stymied by the lack of a VCR.

Cott emphasized that the scale and bulk of the building was appropriate for Mt. Auburn Street.

"This building is contextual, but not the same," Cott said.

But the design stands out too much for some committee members, particularly Chair Phoebe Mason Bruck, who questioned the need for something so different.

"I think it's inappropriate," she said in a post-meeting interview. "The fact that Harvard brought a prize-winning architect from Vienna is not important from our point of view."

But even detractors did not dispute the strucure's inherent strengths, mainly that it will open up the block, allowing access to an interior courtyard from both John F. Kennedy and Mt. Auburn Streets.