Changes--For The Community?

The new plans for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library will call for a scaling-down of the $27-million project, library officials reported last week.

The new design under preparation by architect I.M. Pei will omit an 85-foot-high glass pyramid, eliminate two 350-seat auditoriums and place the John F. Kennedy School of Government in its own building on the 12-acre site.

Although library officials had billed the last-minute alterations as a response to community criticisms, Helen Keyes, administrator for the development corporation, acknowledged Wednesday that the simple economics of increased construction costs had mandated at least some revisions.

Keyes said that if the environmental impact statement had not delayed the project six months, the Kennedy Corp. would have gone ahead with construction under the old design.

Paul R. Lawrence, head of Neighbor Ten and Donham Professor of Organizational Behavior, said the revisions "appear to be accommodations to the limited needs of the University and the problems of the energy crisis."

Since the revisions in the plans will leave total floor space for the museum unchanged, the environmental impact of the project will also not be significantly affected by the new plans, George Grant, director of the study, said Wednesday.

And after nine years of local controversy, a class at the Graduate School of Design, has decided to survey Cambridge opinion on the Kennedy Library. The class project, which has the sanction of the city government, began work yesterday.