Clear your calendars: All sorts of details about Harvard's expansion into Allston are expected to drop this week. We already know that the university wants to transform Barry's Corner, for instance, into something akin to Davis Square—a kind of walkable, mixed-use utopia near public transit (the university has also compared the future Barry's Corner to the area around Fenway Park). Among the newer details expected to become that much sharper:
· Harvard's Allston would include a new 60,000-square-foot basketball arena near the intersection of North Harvard Street and Western Avenue, inside a four- to nine-story building, which would also include offices and shops.
· There would be a hotel and conference center, east of Western Avenue, of similar height and with as many as 250 guest rooms.
· A press box, club seating, an athletics office and training facilities would be added to the existing Harvard Stadium.
· Harvard Business School's Baker Hall would be renovated, with the finished residence hall reaching 78,000 square feet and six stories.
· The school's Kresge Hall would be replaced with a 90,000-square-foot, four-story successor for administrative use and classrooms.
· Burden Hall, too, would be replaced, with a 130,000-square-foot, four-story building.
· And Harvard would build an entirely new, 110,000-square-foot, four-story administrative and faculty building for the business school.
All of this new development in years out, some of it, like the Kresge Hall redo, beginning as early as 2014, while some of it might stretch into the next decade (a mixed-use building as big as 200,000 square feet, slated for next to the new basketball arena, might be finished as late as 2022). But it's on. It's so on. After often-contentious expansion efforts stretching as far back as the 1980s, Harvard is ready to laid down solid details on Allston. Stay tuned.
· New Institutional Master Plan Unveiled [Harvard Magazine]
· Harvard Plans New Arena, Refurbished Stadium, Hotel [Globe]
· Barry's Corner Is the New Davis Square [Curbed Boston]