{shortcode-1a4d4301ea256fcfc20e79d368471c6da67a408e}

Praneel P. Khiantani ’28, a freshman living in Greenough, said he is already “deeply, deeply, deeply in love” with Eliot House.

“I think the dining hall is amazing,” Khiantani said. “It’s like Hogwarts-esque.”

But ahead of Housing Day on March 13, when first-year students are randomly assigned to one of the College’s 12 undergraduate houses, Khiantani said he hopes he gets Lowell and not Eliot — which will be under renovation for the next two years.

“My heart’s broken basically,” he said. “I’m never gonna recover.”

While students often worry about being sorted into Pforzheimer, Currier, or Cabot House in the Radcliffe Quadrangle — known as being “quadded” — undergraduate renovation schedules are also on the minds of anxious first-years.

The Adams House renovation, which began in 2019, is scheduled for completion this summer. The house dining hall will be open, and Adams’ residents will no longer live at The Inn on Massachusetts Ave.

Construction on Eliot House is set to begin in the summer. Unlike the Adams House renovation, which was conducted in phases that allowed some Adams residents to remain in the original buildings, Eliot will be renovated all at once. Starting in the next school year, Eliot residents will live in the Inn, dorms on Prescott Street, and University-owned property in Harvard Square.

Several first-year students said they are concerned about not having a strong house community if placed in Eliot.

“I’d rather not be in Eliot just because I want a real sense of House community,” Carolina G. Loeffel ’28 said. “I feel I won’t get to know as many upperclassmen.”

“It’s really nice — space and overflow is really nice housing — but it’s not the same community feel, from what I can gather,” she added.

To reassure prospective Eliotites, Eliot House Faculty Dean David F. Elmer ’98 wrote in a statement that “students who have the good fortune to be placed in Eliot House will be joining an incredibly vibrant and strong community, centered on events that bring the whole House together.”

“We have highly engaged current students who are busily planning events and formulating design concepts to ensure that our community only grows stronger during the two years of Renewal,” he added. “Eliot House is the people, not the buildings.”

While the desire to be placed in Eliot decreased due to construction, excitement over the newly renovated Adams House has only increased.

“If I were to get Adams, I’d be so hyped because it’s newly renovated,” said Christian Serrano ’28.

“I really want to get into Adams because I saw Claverly Hall and that was so, so pretty,” said Mikayla A. Lin ‘28.

Still, many students express strong opposition to being placed in the Quad, citing its distance from the Yard and the academic buildings.

“I just think Pfoho and all the other houses in the Quad are just not as appealing to me because of the distance to campus, and just that walk would be quite drastic in the morning, and I’m not looking forward to that if that occurs,” said Owen G. Cody ’28.

Aiden J. Bowers ’26, a co-chair of the Pforzheimer House Committee, said, “what the Quad lacks in proximity, it makes up for in great housing and a lively community, both of which are especially true of Pforzheimer House.”

“I often find the peacefulness of the Quad worth the extra minutes I might spend on my commute,” added Bowers, a Crimson Arts editor.

Though, even located in the River East neighborhood, first-years also said Mather House has a similar proximity downside.

“I don’t want Mather mostly because it’s in the middle of nowhere,” said Kevin H. Yang ’28.

“I think especially like the Quad and Mather are pretty far from where I’ll be spending most of my time, so that would be less ideal,” said August C. Damiani ’28.

In addition to the length of the walk, multiple students said Mather’s brutalist architecture was undesirable.

“It’s a poorly designed building,” Yang added. “Just makes me really depressed, and it’d just be bad vibes.”

“I’ve heard really good things about the inside, but I really can’t get past the outside,” Loeffel said. “It’s as far as the Quad, so I’m not really rocking with that.”

While several freshmen expressed excitement for Lowell, Quincy, Winthrop, and Dunster, many said they are trying not to form an attachment to a specific house.

Victoria Chen ’28, a Crimson Design editor, said she has tried not to form an opinion about the best house to “be happy with whatever I get.”

Serrano agreed that it would be better to approach Housing Day without expectations.

“I don’t want to be disappointed on Housing Day, but I have this fixation on Dunster,” Serrano said.

—Staff writer Dionise Guerra-Carrillo can be reached at dionise.guerracarrillo@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Tammy S. Lee can be reached at tammy.lee@thecrimson.com.