Harvard’s Leader of Urban District Initiatives Talks Neighborhood Activation in Allston

Marika Reuling, Harvard’s managing director for urban district initiatives, has spent 16 years thinking about how the University can be a good neighbor as it develops its 360 acres of land in Allston.

Harvard has long maintained athletic facilities and its Business School campus in Allston, across the Charles River from Cambridge. But when the University announced its purchase of nearly 53 acres of additional land in 1998 — following a stealthy eight-year campaign of property acquisitions — headlines accused it of a “land grab.”

Reuling, who started working at Harvard in 2009, said Harvard hired her at a time when the University was thinking about how to be a responsible steward of the land. She was part of a team — launched by then-University President Drew G. Faust in the wake of the financial crisis — that produced a 2011 report laying out principles for Harvard’s decades-long development plans.

Part of the report focused on Harvard’s priorities: preserving land for future institutional growth and building a conference center and hotel. But the report also said that Harvard should bring its own resources and affiliates together in spaces welcoming to the neighborhood.

The Allston acquisitions, Reuling said in an interview in November, gave Harvard a chance to engineer regional economic development with a “bird’s eye view.”

“Allston presented a really wonderful opportunity, in part because the land was available — it is former industrial parcels,” said Reuling, whose current work is within Harvard University Planning and Design. “Historically, that area included things like a Romar trucking facility and a McNamara concrete plant. And so there was an opportunity also to think about re-knitting the area.”

Less than a mile from Cambridge’s biotech hub in Kendall Square, within easy reach of the Longwood Medical Area, and close to historic Harvard Yard, the Allston land parcels lie at the center of Harvard’s vision for its own economic powerhouse — where private companies can set up labs and offices next door to the University’s translational research.

About 14 acres of Harvard’s planned 36-acre Enterprise Research Campus were completed this year, with an opening slated for early 2026. The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has moved into the $1 billion Science and Engineering Complex, just a few minutes down the road.

But Reuling’s work stands apart from the construction of the ERC, led by developer Tishman Speyer. Instead, she focuses on urban planning and Harvard’s neighborhood engagement.

Last month, she pointed to Harvard’s work to create “meantime uses” for spaces it owns in Allston: Even if the University eventually plans to redevelop sites, that doesn’t mean they have to sit empty in the meantime. Many of those uses are facilitated by the Zone 3 initiative, which falls under Reuling’s department.

Harvard has used some spaces — like a former dry cleaning building at 267 Western Ave. — as sites for local businesses or the arts. The dry cleaning building holds the PRX Podcast Garage and has hosted a beer garden for Aeronaut, a Somerville brewery, for the past eight summers.

Several weeks ago, Zone 3 opened a new pop-up location for Moki Sauna, where residents can book Nordic sauna sessions and cold plunges throughout the winter.

Harvard has also hosted workshops with local musicians and lined Western Avenue with murals by local artists through Zone 3.

“If you were to walk through Allston today, you can see a number of old newspaper bins that have been upcycled so that you can collect artwork from local artists,” Reuling said. “There’s also a whole host of murals now on buildings that are done by local artists.”

Harvard is also planning a pedestrian and bike plaza, known as the Greenway, which will include an interactive water feature, a rain garden, and space for a farmer’s market and seasonal events. The space is slated to be largely complete in late spring 2026.

“That Greenway is intended to be both a beautiful open space for all to enjoy,” Reuling said. “People can bike or walk, but it’s also intended to be performative — deliver and manage runoff during rainstorms, to redirect and repurpose some of the water.”

Reuling’s work also sometimes means thinking about small design details. When Harvard installed new street lamps on Western Avenue, they were bi-fold, casting light on both the street for vehicles and the sidewalk for pedestrians.

“That actually set a new lighting standard for the city of Boston,” Reuling said.

She also pointed to the Harvard Ed Portal, an initiative overseen by Harvard Public Affairs and Communications. The Ed Portal provides tutoring for elementary and middle school students, resources for adults seeking work, and — until recently — access to Harvard’s gyms, climbing walls, and pool. But access to the recreational facilities expired earlier this year after Harvard did not renew it under an updated development agreement with Boston.

With the University facing financial headwinds under the Trump administration, the timeline for Allston development remains uncertain. Harvard has continued construction on the ERC and a new home for the American Repertory Theater but has paused some major capital projects elsewhere, and the chief of operations for the Allston-based Business School said in a summer post on the school’s website that “it’s unlikely that the University will be pursuing any large new buildings in the next five years.”

But Harvard’s vision for its presence in the neighborhood across the river remains ambitious — something Reuling said was apparent when the Allston Work Team produced its report in 2011.

“Allston represented a really important center of gravity,” Reuling said, “both for the university as a place to kind of create this creative and innovative ecosystem to bring together that nexus of academia and the neighborhood and translational science.”

Corrections: December 15, 2025

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Marika Reuling was hired to Harvard by former University President Drew G. Faust. In fact, Faust was not directly involved in Reuling’s hiring process.

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Harvard Ed Portal is jointly managed by Harvard College and Harvard Public Affairs and Communications. In fact, it is overseen by HPAC but not the college.

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Ed Portal provides mentoring to high school students. In fact, its mentorship programs focus on elementary and middle school students.

A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to a “grand opening” for Harvard’s Enterprise Research Campus in spring 2026. In fact, though individual buildings have openings slated for next spring, there is currently no grand opening event planned for the campus.

Due to an editing error, a previous version of this article incorrectly stated that The Crimson’s interview with Reuling took place on Wednesday, Dec. 10. In fact, it took place in November.

Clarification: December 15, 2025

A previous version of this article referred to the Allston Work Team as “Reuling’s Team.” To clarify, though Reuling was a member of the team, it was led by former Nashville mayor and Institute of Politics director Bill Purcell, Harvard Business School professor Peter Tufano ’79, and Harvard Graduate School of Design professor Alex Krieger.

—Staff writer Ramon Moreno Jr. can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Yahir Ramirez can be reached at [email protected].