RENOVATING MEM HALL

During an interview in his University Hall office last week, Director of Planning Philip J. Parsons was smiling.

And he has reason to be, because one of the largest renovation projects in the University's history is slated to start this week.

In less than two years, a renovated Memorial Hall will provide students with meeting space, a coffee house and an "electronics room." In the same amount of time, Sanders Theatre will be modernized. And in just five semesters, students in the humanities can visit professors in the "Humanities Arc" at the Freshman Union.

"It's very exciting," he says.

Construction is a fact of life for a 358-year-old University bent on expansion. But finding a precedent for the $20 million renovation of the hall built to commemorate Harvard students who fought and died for the North in the Civil War stretches the memory.

"It is the most complex project the University has undertaken recently," says Peter Riley, who is managing the Memorial Hall project.

Named the Loker Commons after donor Katherine W. Loker, the student center in the Mem Hall basement will contain a broad hallway leading off to activity rooms, table booths, a newsstand, a coffee house and an "electronics" room.

Loker donated $7 million to the Memorial Hall project, and the University is using $12 million of philanthropist Walter Annenberg's $25 million gift to finance the remaining cost of the renovation.

The dining hall will be named after Annenberg's late son, who was a Harvard student.

Student groups will be able to use the activity rooms for special events and will have lockers to stow belongings. The rooms may also be used for sections during the day.

The coffee house, which will be open into the night, will operate like the Greenhouse Cafe and will not be included on the meal plan. There will be banks of booths on the opposite side of the hallway, where large, 10-to-12 person tables will make informal meetings possible.

The "electronics" room may contain telephones, ATM machines, fax machines or HOLLIS terminals, says Jeffrey C. Tarr '96, president of the Harvard Computer Society and a student member a planning committee directing the renovation.

"This is a great project because it is bringing technology into students' lives," Tarr says.

For now, however, the start of construction on Mem Hall means permanent displacement for many campus groups.

And the exodus into the basements of newly-renovated Yard dormitories has already begun. Student organizations--including the Perspective and Salient magazines--will have finished moving out of their old homes in the Memorial Hall basement by this weekend.

Several groups will be relocated to the basement of newly-renovated Thayer Hall, where 17 new offices await them.

Those offices may be clean and new, but some organizations complain that they now have less space.

"We feel slightly screwed," says Joshua A. Feltman '95, Perspective's president.

The leaders of some displaced groups say they are glad to be moving closer to the Yard. "We've always thought we were a little far from the Yard," says Salient President Curtis E. Gannon '95.

Throughout the planning process, officials have closely considered questions of access. Parsons says a foot-traffic analysis of the area around Mem Hall and the Science Center was used to guide planners.

As a result, two broad stairways leading downstairs will be built outside Memorial Hall to make the Loker Commons easy to reach.

Upstairs, a small, plain annex will be built onto the back of the hall where the shuttle bus now stops. The annex is necessary for food preparation and deliveries, planners say.

Students will enter the dining hall through an enclosed arcade so long lines will not leave students standing outside in the cold--a common occurence at the Union.

The benefits of having an accessible Memorial Hall are primarily social, Parsons says. By putting the Loker Commons underneath a dining hall primarily used by first-years, the College hopes to increase interaction between first-years and upperclass students.

At the same time, some officials involved in the planning process have expressed concern that a large student center would hurt the sense of community in the houses.

Parsons says the renovated Memorial Hall, as well as the Science Center, will become the center of the college. But he thinks its location far from the houses will not likely make the commons an alternative to House life.

"People think that Memorial Hall is to the north, but Radcliffe and [many science buildings] are all north of the Hall," Parsons says. "It's actually in the center."

The attention focused on Memorial Hall may obscure the larger reason behind the renovations: a desire to unite 17 different humanities departments into an "arc" or "quad" in the area around the Freshman Union.

Construction in the Union area is scheduled to begin after Commencement 1995 and to be completed by September 1996. Parsons says the architecture firm of Goody, Clancy and Associates has been retained, but no definite plans for that renovation have been set.

"We looked at the Union and Memorial Hall and realized that there were great dead periods during the day when they weren't being used," Parsons says.

"We want to maximize the use of the existing space," Riley adds.

Sanders Theatre will also undergo renovations. The major focus of planners has been the theater's antiquated stage, which will be replaced by a larger version with rising rear sections for choral performances. A piano lift will also be installed.

Planners also promise that the theater's sound, lighting and changing-room facilities will be upgraded.

"Changing all the lighting, sound systems and stage will require a lot of detailed work," Riley says.

Because Sanders must be available for large lecture classes during the academic year, construction work in the theater will occur during the next two summers.

And in order to accommodate Summer School students, the University is now renovating the performance spaces in Lowell Hall for use while Sanders is under construction.

"Lowell Hall should be beautiful by the time we're done with it," Parsons says.

The Summer School is not the only organization Parsons must accomodate. Despite the new offices in Thayer, space for student groups will remain at a premium.

For that reason, the College will create more room for organizations when it renovates Pennypacker and Holworthy Halls this spring.

WHRB, for example, tentatively plans to move to the basement of Pennypacker Hall, according to Parsons.

Still, the Yard renovation project, which is now entering an advanced stage, is designed to do more than just create space for student groups.

Parsons says one of the most important aspects of the renovations has been eliminating entryways and allowing students to use the same doors, as in the newly renovated, one-entry Weld Hall. The dean says renovations such as this encourage interaction between residents. "Thayer was essentially three different dorms before," Parsons says. "We have put them together into one dorm, and provided them with wheelchair access."

Wheelchair access, which is required in all new construction by the 1991 Americans With Disabilities Act, is important to reducing some of the stigma associated with being handicapped at Harvard, Parsons says.

"Students in wheelchairs can now reach any room in the dorm," Parsons said. "This does away with some of the stigma that may have existed when only certain rooms were available."

What You'll See (If You're Around When It's Done):

. The Loker Commons student center in the Memorial Hall basement.

. A dining hall for first-years on the first floor of Mem Hall.

. A refurbished Sanders Theatre with a new stage.

. A 'Humanities Arc' in the area of the Freshman Union.