“The only problem is that it doesn’t exist yet,” Thompson said, adding that engineers have said the vehicle may be a feasible option in the near future.
The task force also recommended that planners investigate the less feasible proposals of constructing a new bridge by Soldiers Field Road and developing a regional transportation center, with commuter rail, a T stop and Harvard shuttle stops, in the area.
The committee looked at three cultural scenarios ranging from merely moving the Museum of Natural History to creating a “museum of the world” that would combine the natural history museum, Peabody Museum and Harvard University Art Museums into a complex that would “exhibit 90 percent of the history of the world.”
The Allston life report echoed the undergraduate life report in calling for extensive performing and artistic space.
The group contemplated modeling new graduate housing along the lines of the undergraduate House system rather than apartments. Members eyed the Quad as valuable space that would allow the University to meet its commitment to offering housing to 50 percent of its graduate students without requiring further graduate housing in Allston.
Stone said that although the plans have not been discussed with residents, Summers’ friendship with Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino would help smooth the path.
“I think at this point the mayor and the president have a very good relationship and hopefully that will help in the long road ahead,” Stone said.
While the road ahead may be long, the committees this year have begun to chart a map, with professional schools and science construction likely to begin in the next decade and undergraduate housing to follow.
As Cooper, Robertson takes over physical planning, they will begin to work with Harvard planners and faculty to lay out a framework for development. Allston Initiative Director and chief University planner Kathy A. Spiegelman said Friday she expected the firm would deliver some concrete plan for development within 18 months.
Summers said the team stood out to the committee because “of their experience in doing this kind of work in academic communities experience on working on urban community problems in terms of the world class team they’ve assembled with Frank Gehry and Laurie Olin.”
And Professor in the Practice of Urban Design Alex Krieger, a member of the committee, said Summers can’t wait to get started and had encouraged the committee to conclude its search rapidly.
“Larry’s been pushing for beginning development sooner—pushing us to conclude the search,” he said.
—Staff writer Stephen M. Marks can be reached at marks@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Lauren A. E. Schuker can be reached at schuker@fas.harvard.edu.