“I have no idea what a piece-meal Harvard campus in Allston would be like,” says Assistant Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Garth O. McCavana, who sits on the faculty committee for planning housing on Harvard’s new campus. “It would be far less attractive for the pioneers who would be the first to move across the river.”

But Spiegelman says that the current encumbrances on the land—the railroad, commercial businesses, and residential tenants—are not worrisome in themselves.

“These businesses and their leases and easements are not worries for us because we are working with a long-term plan,” Spiegelman says. “A lot of things are probably going to change in the next ten years.”

—Staff writer Alex L. Pasternack can be reached at apastern@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Lauren A.E. Schuker can be reached at schuker@fas.harvard.edu.