The project is funded largely through University funds.
Harvard Real Estate Services Project Manager Philip Kramer listed an original contract price of $2,615,000, with architectural, design, internal Harvard, and inspection fees and contingency costs bringing the total approved cost of Memorial Church renovations to $3,381,210.
“The University is supporting nearly the entire cost of this project as a capital improvement project, something that all University buildings go through on a long-term schedule. Many of the elements of this project were planned years ago as summer projects, only to be deferred for budget or other reasons,” Edington wrote.
He wrote that there was a conscious effort on the part of administrators to fit the entire series of renovations into one summer.
“This past November it became increasingly clear that we had an opportunity to bring many of these elements together into one major, integrated project that would essentially concentrate all of the pain and dislocation into one summer.”
The church will reopen for weddings on September 3, with services starting Sunday, September 11.
PRESERVING A LANDMARK
Sever Hall is enveloped by a cocoon of scaffolding and mesh while it undergoes external restoration and internal conversion.
The building’s fourth floor is being converted to provide space for the Visual and Environmental Studies Department, particularly film studies. The new floor will feature two studio classrooms, three screening rooms, a film library, and offices, moving the film program into the Yard and out of the Carpenter Center.
Externally, Sever, which is a national historic landmark, will undergo restoration, with molding, trim, tiles, and masonry cleaned, repaired, and returned to original colors and styles.
“This year inside Sever Hall a wonderful renovation is taking place to create a new, contemporary, exciting space for the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies,” Snyder wrote.
FAS and Harvard Law School (HLS) are also splitting the costs of a summer-long renovation of the HLS Hemenway Gym.
The gym’s seven American-sized squash courts are being converted to three International courts, the new standard for the game. The renovation will more than double fitness space in the gym.
North of the Yard, work is also proceeding on two science buildings, the Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering and the Northwest Science Building, slated for completion in 2006 and 2007, respectively.
—Staff writer Samuel C. Scott can be reached at sscott@fas.harvard.edu.