Hospital Plans Remain in Dark; Hicks Questions Harvard Role

The Affiliated Hospitals Center (AHC) will not announce its intentions for land use in the Mission Hill section of Roxbury until "more progress on the architectural plans is made," Richard D. Wittrup, Center Director, said yesterday.

The AHC is a proposed complex to be occupied by three Roxbury area hospitals, the Peter Bent Brigham, the Robert Breck Brigham, and the Boston Hospital for Women. Harvard is the present owner of the proposed Center site.

Questioned about Center plans yesterday, Wittrup said, "There is no question in my mind that disclosing the plans would complicate matters immensely, perhaps even to the point of delaying the construction of the Center."

"The plans really aren't anywhere near completion-there are many, many things that have to be done before we can let the public know about all this," Wittrup said. "Most of the drawings are in felt-pen form-really nowhere near finalization."

The AHC has presented preliminary architectural drawings to the Boston Redevelopment Authority. The drawings, obtained through another source yesterday, show an expansion across and a closing off of Francis Street. The community has opposed such expansion for the past several years.

"We've been in this boat before," Wittrup said. "Two years ago, we proposed a plan for a similar type of hospital on the Convent site, and the information was released too soon and the hospital was never bulit because of it."

The AHC has come under a great deal of criticism from the surrounding Roxbury community. Most recently, on Dec. 7, Louise Day Hicks, acting as a member of the Public Services Committee of the Boston City Council, sent a letter to Edward S. Gruson. Harvard assistant to the President for community affairs.

Hicks sent a similar letter on Oct. 13, but Gruson said that it was not answer-ed because of his hospitalization at the time. Gruson added that his assistant, Donald G. Moulton, was not familiar with the Roxbury area, and therefore was unable to answer the letter properly.

The letter demanded answers to a number of questions pertaining to Harvard land ownership in the Roxbury area and to the AHC. It called for Harvard to disclose the exact amount of its property in the Roxbury neighborhood and its development plans for the area.

It questioned, too, whether Harvard had made a commitment to the Roxbury Tenants of Harvard that no development would proceed without the consent of the community, and whether the AHC plans would be discussed with the community.

Objections from the community itself were voiced by a Mission Hill resident and architect, John Sharratt. "I really don't think people object to the hospital itself-if it has to be built, it has to be built. But the fact that the AHC is being so secretive has made a lot of people pretty mad," Sharratt said.