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JFK Library May Not Get Needed Land

Kennedy-Pusey Pact Bars Site Expansion

By Hendrik Hertzberg and A. DOUGLAS Matthews

The planners of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library may run into trouble from the University if they attempt to obtain more land for their building.

President Pusey said last week that he doubts "very much" that Harvard will be able to donate more land to the Library. All the land surrounding the Library site is owned by the University.

A spokesman for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 said yesterday that the project "will need more square footage" now that "the concept of a Library has been widened to include the concept of an institute." He noted, however, that square footage can be increased "by building up or down as well as out."

The spokesman emphasized that a hard estimate of how much land the Library will need must wait until an architect has been chosen and has presented specific plans. "As a matter of fact," he said, "the architect will be selected partly on the basis of the suggestions he makes for use of the land."

RFK Thinks Plot Small

In Boston last Sunday, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy '48 reported that the Library's advisory committee considers the two-acre Business School site too small. He added that he plans to "work on" the possibility of acquiring more land.

Some of the square footage the library planners may request could conceivably come from a second two-acre plot between the Library site and Western Ave.

L. Gard Wiggins, Administrative Vice-President, said yesterday that the use of thir plot is limited by an agreement signed by Pusey and President Kennedy last fall. Under this agreement, the University retained the deed but promised never to build on the plot, which would provide an access route to the Library.

Wiggins said that using this land for building would involve a complete re-negotiation of the agreement. He was unsure of what legal difficulties, if any, such a recasting might involve.

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