Kirkland House Renovations Not Set to Break Ground Until 2028-29 at Earliest

Kirkland House is not expected to undergo renovations until at least the 2028-29 academic year, Director of the Undergraduate House Renewal Program Cameron Borgasano said in an interview last week.

Kirkland is next in line for renovation after Eliot House, where construction began in June 2025 and is expected to finish in fall 2027. Borgasano said she expects Eliot renovations to wrap up on time — unlike Adams House, which faced a slew of delays during the Covid-19 pandemic. But plans for Kirkland are still being drafted.

“Kirkland is currently in design,” Borgasano said. “We don’t know when construction for Kirkland will start.”

Kirkland Faculty Deans Downing Lu and Peter J. Huybers wrote in a Wednesday email to Kirkland affiliates that the renovation timeline has not yet been finalized.

“Kirkland will be next for renewal after the next year or so (exact start yet to be determined),” they wrote.

College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo said in March 2024 that Eliot and Kirkland would be renovated after Adams House. Construction on Eliot began in June 2025.

Palumbo wrote in a Monday statement that Kirkland’s renovation process is “on schedule and underway,” but declined to provide a construction start date.

“Design work has already begun and will likely continue through ‘27-‘28 academic year,” Palumbo wrote. “Given the complexity of the project, we are not currently prepared to announce a construction start date.”

In more than 20 interviews with The Crimson, Kirkland students expressed mixed feelings about the extended timeline, with some excited to remain in the original House for another year while others hoped for upgrades to its aging infrastructure.

Nadia N. Olsen ’29 said she enjoys the older elements of the House and hoped that renovations “don’t take away that traditional integrity.”

“It’s such a historic House,” Olsen said. “We have an amazing dining hall, we have an amazing JCR — all of which is built on the historicity of Kirkland House.”

“Hopefully it gets delayed again,” Olsen added. “We don’t want to leave.”

Adelaide L.D. Roger ’29 said she also preferred Kirkland’s unrenovated architecture to that of some renovated Houses.

“Harvard is such a historical place, and it’s cool to be able to be part of a historical place,” Roger, a former Crimson News editor, said. “An unrenovated House has the old charm that I feel like some of the renovated Houses have lost. Some of them — no offense to Winthrop and Lowell — look like asylums.”

“Keep the mice and the vermin here,” Roger added. “We love them.”

Other students said they worried that renovations would scatter Kirkland residents across overflow housing, weakening the House’s sense of community.

“I care a lot about the Kirkland community,” Siya C. Patel ’29 said. “It’s easier to participate in things and have community stuff and see your friends when you’re all inside the Kirkland building.”

Several juniors said they looked forward to the possibility of spending their senior year in Kirkland instead of overflow housing.

“I’m excited to keep the sense of House community that I’ve had for the past two years,” Meera G. Sholevar ’28 said.

Blixa L. Broussard ’29, however, said he would prefer to live in apartment-style overflow housing, even if renovations beginning in 2028 meant spending his senior year outside Kirkland.

“It’s another year of living in the House, and then we go into renovations our senior year,” Broussard said. “That’s first round draft pick of the Prescotts. So we’re not super bummed about that.”

Kayla Acuna ’29 said she hoped renovations would help equalize students’ housing experiences across the Houses, noting that Kirkland’s outdated facilities have created problems with accessibility and pest infestations.

“I’m just mad,” Acuna said. “We have so many roaches, and I feel like we need the renovation. It’s actually getting sad.”

“We pay the same tuition as students who live in Claverly,” she added, referencing a newly renovated hall in Adams House. “The discrepancy should be fixed.”

Summer R. Sinsley ’29 said she was excited to live in the original House for another year, but hoped renovations would improve Kirkland’s reputation on campus.

“We just get a lot of hate because we’re not renovated,” Sinsley, a Crimson blog editor, said. “I’m hoping that it’ll be better for future Kirklanders after our class and after renovations are over.”

—Staff writer Wyeth Renwick can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @wzrenwick.

—Staff writer Claire L. Simon can be reached at [email protected] and Signal at csimon.13. Follow her on X @ClaireSimon.