Harvard slows work on Allston complex

The foundation of a science complex is to be finished this year. (GEORGE RIZER/GLOBE STAFF/File 2008)

Harvard University is putting the brakes on its landmark plans to remake an industrial slice of Allston into a sprawling new campus, President Drew Faust announced yesterday, in the clearest sign yet of the impact the recession is having on the world's wealthiest university.

Construction on a massive $1 billion science complex will slow and perhaps halt altogether for an undetermined period if the university's financial picture does not improve, Faust said. Harvard plans to finish the foundation and bring the structure to ground level this calendar year, but may not be able to complete the complex by the planned 2011 opening, she said, raising concern among neighbors that the site could sit abandoned for years.

"Although long-term planning for other Allston development will continue, it will occur at a slower pace, and our broader plans for developing the Allston campus are delayed," Faust wrote in a letter to the Allston community.

Faust made the announce ment as Harvard's endowment, which was once valued at $36.9 billion and covers more than a third of the university's $3.5 billion operating budget, is projected to plummet 30 percent for 2008-2009.

"Such a significant decrease presents us with difficult trade-offs," Faust wrote in a separate letter to the Harvard community yesterday. ". . . Tinkering around the edges will not be enough. What is more, our conscious avoidance of 'one size fits all' solutions means that not everyone is going to be happy with every outcome."

Work so far on the 589,000-square-foot science complex currently amounts to a giant hole in the ground. Faust acknowledged in an interview that any delay could cost the university more in the future, depending on the price of building materials. But the university needs the money it would save on construction for its operating costs.

"Right now, we are facing a very strained financial situation, and we're trying to manage our way through that," she said.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who spoke with Faust Tuesday about Allston's future, said he is disappointed but understands the need for the slowdown.

"It's the prudent thing to do at this time," Menino said. "Even Harvard, which everyone knows is the wealthiest university, is having issues financially. It's very important that you face reality."

Faust, who once compared Harvard's Cambridge-Allston relationship to the left and right banks of the Seine River in Paris, had warned previously of the possibility of a slowdown in developing Harvard's more than 350 acres in Allston.

In recent weeks, the university began lining up contingency plans for scientists who were to be housed in the Allston science complex. But yesterday's announcement was the first official word addressing specifics about Allston's immediate future.

The science complex, touted as the cornerstone of Harvard's presence in Allston, was planned to bring together under one roof researchers from the Medical School, the School of Engineering, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. It was to house the university's new department of stem cell and regenerative biology and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, as well as the new Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Those highly acclaimed initiatives will be located elsewhere, Faust said.

The Stem Cell Institute and department will move to renovated laboratory space on Harvard's Cambridge campus. The Wyss Institute will go to the Longwood medical campus and the Cambridge campus. In the interview yesterday, Faust said it remains unclear when and if they will relocate to Allston.

Doug Melton, codirector of the Stem Cell Institute, said that scientists in the stem cell and regenerative biology department will be moving to renovated lab space in Cambridge in the fall, sooner than they would have been able to move into the Allston science complex. That will make it easier for the department to launch its new undergraduate major. His long-term hope, though, remains in Allston.

"In terms of convening in a brand new building, this is a slowdown, if not a setback," Melton said. "But on the research side, things are going extremely well, and this won't slow us at all. It's not like we've been waiting to do experiments."

Allston residents have already voiced frustration about the vacant Harvard-owned lots and buildings dotting their neighborhood. Now they are bracing for an undetermined length of construction before Harvard fulfills its long-term vision of meandering pathways, parks, other academic buildings, and arts and cultural spaces.

"As a community, we have accepted living alongside all of Harvard's vacant buildings and abandoned property for almost 10 years now," said Harry Mattison, a member of the Harvard Allston Task Force. "You can suck it up and take it when you think it'll be a couple more years and all the watercolor drawings and pretty pictures will come true. But now this is what I may be looking at for the rest of my life."

Faust said that she has spoken with the heads of the task force to update them on Harvard's plans and that a university official hand-delivered a letter yesterday to the rest of the group outlining the plans. Harvard plans to consult the Allston community in upcoming weeks on how to make the best use of its properties in the interim.

"It's a difficult situation for everyone," Faust said during the interview. "We want to do our very best to be a good neighborhood in circumstances we didn't anticipate and in circumstances we wish we didn't have to face."

The university will also explore ways to reduce the construction cost of the science complex through design changes, Faust said. The building was to be the first of two science complexes, but that second facility is on indefinite hold.

Harvard has already frozen the salaries for faculty and non-union staff and made a voluntary early retirement offer to 1,600 staff members to trim its operating budget.

"No less than before, what we do in Allston remains a vital part of Harvard's future," Faust wrote. "While the economic downturn necessitates a change of pace, we remain committed to a long-term vision of Allston that will take full advantage of the historic opportunity it represents."

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.