New $5-Million Center To Rise Near Littauer

Harvard's $5-million International Studies building will rise on the site of Lawrence Hall, between the Littauer Center of Public Administration and the proposed undergraduate science center.

The high-rise building will contain offices, seminar rooms, common rooms, a lounge, and a cafeteria. It will probably be connected to Littauer by a bridge, tunnel, or arcade.

Like the William James Center for the Behavioral Sciences, the new building is expected to facilitate the exchange of information by researchers in related fields.

President Pusey said yesterday that construction would begin when the University raises $7.5 million. One third of the total will match the $2.5 million that the Ford Foundation set aside for construction; the rest will establish an endowment to cover maintenance costs.

Although it will take "some years" to find the money, Pusey said he had no doubt that it could be found. No special fund drive is being planned.

According to Don K. Price, Jr., Dean of the Faculty of Public Administration, the University began thinking about an International Studies building over five years ago. In 1959, when it first applied for a Ford Foundation grant for international studies, Harvard unsuccessfully sought funds for such a center.

Two years ago Pusey asked Price to chair an informal committee to prepare a "rough schedule of space requirements and probable uses." Among the men that Price consulted were Merle Fainsod, then chairman of the Faculty's committee on regional studies; Robert R. Bowie, director of the Center for International Affairs; John T. Dunlop, chairman of the Economics Department; Arthur A. Maass, chairman of the Government Department; L. Gard Wiggins, administrative vice-president; and Harold L. Goyette, planning officer for the University.

Price then wrote a short memorandum that the Planning Office used for estimating the size and expense of the building. The office also studied peripheral problems, like the center's effect on the Harvard Square traffic problem.

In his memo--which was prepared last January--Price urged that the new building be developed as a "common facility" with Littauer Center. "Each part will want, to some extent, to have a unique identity and special facilities," he explained yesterday.

For most of the special centers, the move to the new building will also be a move to larger and more convenient quarters. Bowie said last night that the Center for International Affairs was "terrifically" cramped in its Divinity Ave. headquarters, and the Russian Research Center has been using rooms in Dudley House since the demolition of its Dunster St. offices.