Crossing that Bridge: Housing in the 21st Century

While freshmen this year fretted over getting “Quadded” on Housing Day, residents of the Yard in the year 2027 may well face the prospect of getting “Allston-ed” when they tear open their envelopes.

When the Institutional Master Plan for the development of the new Allston campus was released in January, it included a proposal that four new undergraduate Houses be built across the River to replace the three now in the Quad.

The Quad Houses’ potential move across the Charles is the most dramatic aspect of a short- and long-term transformation of the College’s residential system that could be the biggest in years. By the time that a thousand undergraduates are traversing the Weeks Footbridge on their way home, mixed-gender housing may be common, some upperclassmen might be living in the Yard, and the River Houses could be dramatically renovated.

TOWARDS A NEW QUAD

The proposed housing in Allston, which several administrators have referred to as part of “Phase 2” of the long-term construction plans across the Charles River, is slated to be located in place of the sports complex that today includes Blodgett Pool, Briggs Cage basketball arena, Dillon Field House, and Palmer Dixon Courts. Those facilities would all be moved just south of where they now stand.

University Provost Steven E. Hyman said in January that the three Quad Houses would be converted into graduate students residences and faculty housing. He said at the time that Harvard’s undergraduate population would not increase despite augmented living space.

Some Quadlings—renowned for their fierce House spirit—are less than enthusiastic at the prospect of their Houses moving across the River.

“I don’t know if it moves to Allston it will still be Pfoho,” says Pforzheimer House Committee (HoCo) Co-Chair Brandon P. Geller ’08. “All this tradition that we’ve worked hard for...might be void, especially if it changes its name.”

Geller also notes that many students who live on the Quad—including himself—appreciate the more residential and “homey” lifestyle it provides, suggesting the same may not be true of the Allston Houses which would be in the midst of the rest of the planned development in the area.

Yet Cabot HoCo Co-Chair Ajay G. Kumar ’08 says that housing undergraduates right across the River might foster more undergraduate integration than the unconnected Garden Street location of the current Quad.

But even if whole Houses might pick up and move, current students are dealing with more immediate, yet still dramatic, changes in their residential life.

NOT JUST MALE OR FEMALE

Fifty years ago, women were not even allowed into male students’ rooms past midnight. Yet as soon as next year, the division between “male” and “female” housing might become much less rigid.

A first step in institutionalizing gender-neutral housing—where students could be placed into mixed gender suites —was taken this year with the announcement that students may mark themselves as transgender on their housing forms, instead of as only male or female. This option will affect entering freshmen and transfer students, as well as all students in next spring’s housing lotteries.

Some students say that the process of how to obtain a mixed-gender living situation was unclear, though the College will work to remedy that next year.

“The big problem as I see it is a lot of students...don’t even know the mechanisms by which to access alternative housing arrangements,” says Tracy E. Nowski ’07, who was an outspoken proponent of gender-neutral housing throughout her time at Harvard and on the Committee on House Life (CHL).

Though gender-neutral housing is currently available for students who identify as transsexual, Associate Dean for Residential Life Suzy M. Nelson says the College hopes to regularize the rules across the Houses and create a more transparent process for obtaining gender-neutral housing.

At this point all of the rooms that are suitable for co-ed living—suites that have locks on the doors of each bedroom—have been identified and the CHL will work with the masters of each House before next year’s lottery to address individualized issues that differ among Houses because of different lottery procedures.

The road to gender-neutral housing has been both lengthy and controversial, with logistical hurdles accompanying the challenge of garnering enough support for the initiative.

“What’s promising is the goal itself is no longer in dispute, which is kind of amazing,” Nowski says. “When this first came up that was by no means the pre-ordained conclusion.”

The co-ed housing rules that are being regularized across the Houses are, however, aimed at students who are considered to need this form of housing rather than those who simply want it.

INTO THE YARD

In another shake-up of long-standing residential norms, upperclassmen might soon find themselves in the freshman-dominated Yard dormitories.

Mass. Hall, which has traditionally housed freshmen as well as central administration offices, is being converted into emergency housing for upperclassmen as soon as next academic year, according to Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71.

Administrators say that overcrowding is not the reason for this move.

Nelson says that Mass. Hall would be used as a back-up for emergency space which already exists in most Houses. The emergency space is used to house upperclassmen who need to move out of their current living situation for whatever reason.

Mass. Hall is not being used next year for freshmen, as it has been in the past, because the rest of the freshman dormitories offer ample space to house the first-years, and those in Mass. Hall have traditionally been less integrated into the freshman class, says Assistant Dean of Residential Life Joshua G. McIntosh.

But one student who lived in the 18-person dorm this year said she did not feel cut off from her fellow freshmen and enjoyed the experience of living in a small building where everyone knew each other.

“I’m sad that they’re closing it,” says Margaux E. Black ’10. “I think it was a great experience in my opinion just living in such a small dorm.”

NEW PIPES OR NEW ROOMS

The space crunch issue in the upperclassmen Houses is primarily a result of configuration problems that could be addressed in extensive, multi-million dollar renovations to River Houses, the extent of which is still being assessed.

The College will decide this summer on what scale to renovate existing Houses after a test renovation plan in Dunster House, according to Gross.

“We’re really just trying to get a handle on what is the need and what it would take to address the need that we currently have,” says Associate Director of Residential Operations Zachary M. Gingo ’98.

Almost a hundred rooms in Dunster will also receive new space-saving furniture this summer, including raised beds, dressers that fit underneath the beds, and narrower desks that may have built-in bookcase space on top. If the furniture pilot program is deemed a success, administrators say other Houses may be refurnished as well.

But actually altering room configurations through construction—by gutting and renovating interior spaces—is the most extensive, costly, and lengthy of the options under consideration. A decision to go with these full-fledged renovations would likely entail the additional construction of provisional housing space for students to live in while their House is renovated.

The CHL discussed this possibility in the spring, based upon the model Yale used in which “swing space” was constructed to house students while the rooms in their residential college were redone.

The other two alternatives would mostly be behind-the-scenes changes, with a more basic option entailing maintenance renewal and a middle scenario including an entire overhaul of the major systems in the Houses, like heating and plumbing.

“What we’re studying is: is it time for a significant investment above and beyond our current investment level?” says Gingo.

Gross says that estimated renovations on the River Houses would cost at least $200 million, which would come from the central administration’s coffers.

“And whatever happens in Allston with construction for the Houses on the other side of the River, we are still going to need the River Houses,” Gross said. “No one is talking about abandoning Winthrop.”

—Staff writer Victoria B. Kabak can be reached at vkabak@fas.harvard.edu.