“The idea would be that whatever is built does not absolutely foreclose anything as far in the future as 30 or 40 years,” Fried says. “We’re talking way down the line, and circumstances do change.”

However, some professors said that the fact that Summers’ has asked HLS to even consider Allston scenarios in their immediate decision-making could raise hackles.

“Most on the faculty consider an HLS move to Allston to be a dead letter, and would be unnerved to find that the administration thinks otherwise,” Weld Professor of Law Charles R. Nesson says.

A University Decision

HLS is only the most immediate case in which planning for Allston will have a tangible effect on current plans.

Nor is HLS necessarily the first case of physical planning to be affected by Allston, administrators note. Harvard Business School has in recent years oriented its growth towards Allston—the school’s new Spangler center is the first Harvard building to look towards the still undeveloped Allston campus.

Summers says he is continuing University-wide consultation about the future of the Allston campus.