Yesterday, Harvard University released details of its plan to construct a large new science complex in Allston. The first phase of the project will include a 700,000-square-foot health and life sciences center on Western Avenue and a residential and retail commons in the nearby area.
The university has built up its Allston landholdings for years to open luxurious academic spaces, commercial offices, residences and retail complexes. This overhaul will include the redevelopment of the area that is currently occupied by the Charlesview housing complex, which will eventually be relocated and redeveloped at a site near Western Avenue. The second phase of the proposal will entail the development of a hotel and conference center along with an “enterprise research complex,” according to The Boston Globe.
In a letter to the surrounding Allston community, Harvard expressed its hope that the enterprise research campus will serve as “a gateway to a collaborative community for business investment capital, and research and science development.”
While the development of the complex would theoretically improve the area, Harvard should work with and consider the needs of current Allston residents before planting itself in the middle of the neighborhood and changing the whole atmosphere and character of the area.
The city of Boston has a bad history with urban renewal and displacing low-income residents in the name of improving the city without regard to the needs and opinions of the people who are forced to move. This is not to say that Harvard is or will be insensitive to the pulse of the neighborhood, but their slow infiltration of Allston would undoubtedly change its personality.
Part of the charm of Allston right now is its diversity. Its proximity to Cambridge gives it an element of intellect, but that upper crust runs elbow-to-elbow with low-income immigrants and college students (especially in the Southern area closer to Boston University). That variation is what gives Allston its flavor, its appeal, and it is something that Harvard should take into consideration when formulating its plans for development.
Harvard’s project would, of course, not really affect Boston University students all that much, because most of it is concentrated in the northern part of Allston, beyond the area to which BU students tend to gravitate. What it would affect is the integrity of the neighborhood, and this is a factor that should not go unnoticed by the university or the city of Boston.
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