Pub's First Call Pushed to Late Spring

Students looking to grab chilled drafts and late-night grub at Harvard’s Queen’s Head pub will have to wait until late spring, marking the second reported delay of the well anticipated social space since planning began.

Due to unforeseen construction delays as a result of health concerns, the Queen’s Head pub will be completed after the projected February deadline.

“We’ve had a few construction delays, primarily due to the lead paint dust that was reported last summer,” Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 wrote in an e-mail to The Crimson. “We still plan to open sometime in the spring.”

The construction in Loker Commons first generated concerns over the summer about leakage of dust containing lead paint filaments, The Crimson reported in August.

Under construction since July, the Queen’s Head pub was initially slotted to open in the fall. The debut was then pushed to this February after the College switched architectural design firms last March.

Currently, construction on the pub is at a temporary standstill, according to Zachary A Corker ’04, project manager of Loker Commons planning and program development.

The pub, costing in the range of $2 to $4 million, is funded by former University President Lawrence H. Summers’ renovation grant from fall 2005 and alumni contributions to the Dean’s Fund for Undergraduate Life, Corker said.

Undergraduates who attended yesterday morning’s breakfast with Gross said he announced that the pub will not open until late next semester.

“I was thrown back by the fact that the pub is expected to open in late spring, when I was under the impression that it would be ready for operation at the beginning of second semester,” said Jon T. Staff V ’10, who attended the breakfast.

Staff, an Undergraduate Council (UC) representative for East Yard, added that he informed freshmen of the delay when he was tabling for the UC in Annenberg Hall last night. He said he found that most students he encountered were disappointed by the adjustment of the completion date.

Blessing T. Oyeniyi ’10 said that she has been looking forward to using Loker Commons this semester as a hangout space since she visited during prefrosh weekend.

She added that the delay is an inconvenience, particularly in the winter, for freshmen who want to access social space “outside Yard dormitories.”

Oyeniyi also cited concerns that seniors may not be able to fully take advantage of the space if it opens a few months before graduation.

Corker said administrators are now working with the pub’s planners and architects to ensure that Queen’s Head is “built with all it needs to succeed.”

“We are hoping to have a firm date set [for the opening] soon as possible,” Corker said. “We want to be cautious of student schedules and set an opening date that works well for students.”

Susann Schlaud, spokeswoman for Miller Dyer Spears, the Boston-based architectural firm that designed the pub, said that the company is still working on the construction schedule, but she would not comment further on the delays.

Vice President of Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) Scott P. Abell ’07 said there is “nothing holding back the process” with respect to HSA’s work with the College to handle the staffing and logistics of the pub.

HSA recently worked out a contract with Harvard University Dining Services and the College to determine the wages of pub workers and give the student business control over the employment process, he added.

“I don’t anticipate the delay to be that long,” Abell said. “I think members of the Class of 2007 are just excited to be involved in the opening of the pub, be it in February or late spring.”

—Katherine M. Gray contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Ying Wang can be reached at yingwang@fas.harvard.edu.