Cambridge Begins Square Study, Local Committee to Aid Planning

Spurred on by increased community and University interest, the City of Cambridge has taken the first steps towards reconditioning the Harvard Square area. A first-draft outline for a Study Program for Possible Development of Harvard Square has been prepared, Alan McClellan, City Planner, announced yesterday.

He admitted, however, that work was "in the most preliminary stage," and that actual construction "isn't going to take place day after tomorrow." McClellan feels that the recent controversy over John Briston Sullivan's proposed office building had been important in prompting the report.

"There's no question about it," he said. "The situation received new focus and attention as a result of the Sullivan proposal."

Eliot Says Traffic 'Intolerable'

One of the most serious pleas for action has come from Charles W. Eliot II '20, Professor of City and Regional Planning. Eliot, in a letter in the April 1 issue of the Alumni Bulletin, called for "a plan and program for the future of the Harvard Square area" which would ease the "intolerable" traffic and parking problems, preserve the historic points of interest in Cambridge, and "integrate Harvard's needs and purposes with those of the City of Cambridge."

McClellan agreed with Eliot that traffic was a major problem, but declined to comment on Eliot's specific proposals to ease the situation (i.e., extension of Route 2 to the Inner Belt; extension of the Cambridge Subway; and construction of a new rapid transit system).

Eliot has called for a committee representing various groups in the area. McClellan noted that the City plans to establish a Harvard Square Study Committee which would be supplemental to the Planning Board and would include representatives of the City, the MTA, Harvard and Radcliffe, and the Harvard Square Businessmen's Association, among others.