“What we found then, and I’m sure he’s no different now, is that the mayor is a fierce defender of neighborhoods and will be watching to make sure that what we recommend to the University is something that is gentle to the community,” he said.

The North Allston Strategic Task Force, a neighborhood group set up by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, expects to release a report this summer that will outline the community’s priorities for the area.

“That’s going to be the guidelines and the frame of reference for whoever Harvard hires,” said Allston resident Ray Mellone, who chairs the neighborhood task force. “Even if there are stylistic differences...we will have a say about what we think fits the community.”

In addition to looking at the neighborhood’s report and holding regular meetings, McGregor said Cooper, Robertson would set up an office in the neighborhood so residents could drop in to talk about the planning.

With a heavy focus on science planned for the Allston campus, McGregor also said the team would benefit from its members’ experience planning MIT’s Stata Center, Yale’s Science Hill and the science campus at Johns Hopkins.

He said one of the challenges would be to integrate the sciences in Cambridge, the Longwood Medical Area and the future campus in Allston, noting that the task force report had stressed Allston as a site for interdisciplinary science facilities.

According to McGregor, the planning team hopes to meet with faculty, students and community members over the first three months, after which he hopes they will be ready to release some options.

He said it had not yet been decided how the team would work with the planning staff already in place at Harvard, but he hoped the selection committee would continue to be involved.

“What would benefit us most would be to have all of those people in the room both reacting to what we do and participating around the table,” he said.

—Staff writer Jessica R. Rubin-Wills can be reached at rubinwil@fas.harvard.edu.