Residents suggested an array of possibilities, including a community center with performing arts space, an indoor baseball field, a community swimming facility, and several businesses.

Spiegelman cautioned that Harvard would not be able to deliver on all the ideas, but residents seem convinced that a redevelopment of the area would be beneficial to the community.

“It’s really becoming the heart of the new vision,” says Tim McHale, a member of the Board of Directors of the Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation (CDC). “A smart set of buildings can...attract people.”

Rick Geilfuss, the president of the Allston Brighton Community Theater Foundation, suggested at the meeting that Harvard construct a theater at Barry’s Corner.

“One way or another Harvard is going to do what Harvard wants to do,” he says. “If they’re going to offer to help us we should get as much as we can from them.”

But several community leaders question the need to reconstruct the intersection.

“I think it isn’t particularly attractive but there are neighborhood uses that people use,” says Robert Van Meter, the executive director of the Allston Brighton CDC. “Maintaining the overall neighborhood character is more important than creating a town center feel.”

Ray Mellone, chair of the North Allston Neighborhood Strategic Planning Group, says that “the devil is in the details.”

“The fact of the matter is what will be developed needs to be examined closely,” he says. “I want to see how the process evolves before I make a decision.”

‘THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM’

But any schemes for transforming the area face at least one pitfall—Harvard does not own all the land at Barry’s Corner.

Indeed, one entire section of the intersection is occupied by the 213-unit Charlesview Apartment complex.

Paul Creighton, the director of the Allston Brighton Area Planning Action Council, says the presence of the Charlesview Apartments could delay any progress.

“There’s a housing development right in the middle,” he says. “That place has been there for 35 years. What are they going to do?”

Van Meter says the apartment complex was “the elephant in the room in terms of Harvard’s presentation.”