As big-name companies and fledgling start-ups have made their homes in Kendall Square, the district has adapted to meet the needs of the new arrivals. In just the past three years, 20 restaurants have opened in Kendall Square.

“Before there was one decent restaurant, Legal Sea Foods. We all ate there way too many times,” said Tim Rowe, co-founder of the Cambridge Innovation Center, an office space that caters to start-ups.

“It was certainly not a vibrant area before. You had to have a reason to go there,” said Jeremiah P. Murphy Jr. ’73, the president of the Coop, which has a branch in Kendall Square.

“SYNERGETIC”

Kendall Square’s booming science and tech industry has been a boon for MIT, which has courted several of these companies through various types of partnerships.

“What we’ve found is proximity is one of the key accelerators in science. We’re all right here,” said Sarah E. Gallop, co-director of government and community relations at MIT.

MIT has formed partnerships with companies including Novartis and Pfizer. Currently, MIT is building a facility for Pfizer, which will be located across the street from the school’s brain and cognitive science department.

For the most part, however, MIT has kept its distance from much of Kendall Square’s development.

The school has been a beneficiary rather than a driver of the area’s growth. Gallop said MIT had little responsibility for the growth of Kendall Square. “Our involvement was synergetic,” she said.

Harvard hopes to enter similar relationships with tech companies and businesses in Allston—a strategy known as co-development.

“Allston’s growing academic community will both benefit from and contribute to the neighborhood, promoting activity in the area and attracting new businesses and industries to Allston and greater Boston,” University Provost Alan M. Garber ’76 put it in an interview with The Crimson in May.

Harvard’s expansion strategy diverges from MIT’s, however.

“The classical difference between Harvard and MIT is Harvard acquires land for institutional use,” said McCready, who was formerly Harvard’s director of Cambridge community relations.

THE KENDALL BLUEPRINT

In some ways, the initial phases of Harvard’s Allston development have already begun to mirror Kendall Square’s rise.