In the meantime, FAS is finalizing plans and breaking ground on a number of new science facilities in the North Yard.

FAS scientists say that the University cannot wait until Allston planning is settled to build for the future of science.

“One of most pressing issues for FAS is the future of sciences. We can’t delay and sacrifice the sciences for 10 years,” Galison says.

Law School Planning

Several Harvard schools—FAS as well as at several of the smaller graduate schools—have quietly started committees, formal or informal, to discuss their own strategic interests during the upcoming University-wide process.

But the first committee formed to consider Allston from the viewpoint of a single school could not have been more high profile.

In 1999, the HLS faculty nearly went into an uproar at the thought of being forced out of Cambridge and into Allston. At the time, science had not yet been posed as a formal planning scenario for Harvard’s new land across the river, so HLS formed the centerpiece of the only option for an academic campus.

The faculty voted overwhelmingly against making a move.

HLS Dean Robert C. Clark appointed a committee to consider the school’s options, the high-profile Locational Options Committee, and chose Elena Kagan to head up the group.

HLS planners and FAS administrators may not agree on what should go to Allston, they do echo one another on two points: space in Cambridge is limited and in order to stay competitive, each needs more and better facilities.

“Our facilities are grossly inadequate for our current purposes, so we’re going to make changes to our campus, regardless of whether we end up moving to Allston or not,” says Kagan, who will assume the HLS deanship this summer.

This past fall, the so-called Kagan committee wrapped up a comprehensive report on what and where the law school could expand.

The report lays out different scenarios for the Law School here in Cambridge and across the river.

One option involves keeping the Law School on its current site, but expanding on this land by using student dorms for classroom and student space and moving the dorms across the river.

Other scenarios involve Allston even more prominently. In one scenario, the Law School would get the riverside property where the athletic fields currently are, pushing the athletes further into Allston. The two other options place the law school where the Business School dorms are currently or deeper into the city.