Keeping a Close Eye On The Harvard Allston Expansion
With the announcement of the construction slowdown of the science complex in Allston, some of us Allston residents realized that there may very well be a large hole in the ground for many more years to come.
Suddenly, we looked around and saw that there were many issues with the Harvard 50 year plan for Allston that the neighborhood needs to keep an eye on. For those that live in Allston / Brighton, or in Cambridge, or in Boston, we need to be more vigilant to prevent our town from becoming nothing more than empty buildings for the next 50 years.
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Harvard opens up i-lab in WGBH Space
Posted on November 18th, 2011 No commentsFinally, it has happened, the old WGBH building has seen some interior renovations and the opening of Harvad’s first real entry into entrepreneurship. The Harvard Innovation Lab opened its doors today!
More info in this Globe article: http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/11/18/harvard-makes-foray-into-start-scene-with-lab/RUzKF02RM27W84JshJKHtO/story.html
I am very happy to see that space put to use! But I am also curious about the mission. The quoted mission statement is:
The Harvard innovation lab is a new and innovative initiative fostering team-based and entrepreneurial activities and deepening interactions among Harvard students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and members of the Allston and Greater Boston community.
I haven’t really seen how this will directly benefit anyone in the Allston or Boston community, so it seems to me that i-lab is a strictly Harvard only initiative. Will local (non-Harvard) entrepreneurs be invited to work in the space? For now, it seems the answer is no.
I have previously run my business from MIT’s One Broadway C3 coworking space / incubator, which has been incredibly friendly and open to the entire boston-based entrepreneurship community. If Harvard would open its doors to Boston, and especially Allston, entrepreneurs, I think it would see a lot of benefits. But, it remains to be seen if Harvard will do this. There is certainly no information on how to do that on their website. Or more likely, in a typical Harvard-esque maneuver, the community will be completely shut out from any newly developed resources. I guess time will tell, but I’m hoping they decide to actually fulfill their mission statement, and offer space to Allston startups…
Check out the Harvard i-lab directly here: http://i-lab.harvard.edu/
Oh, and if you can find a “contact us” button on the i-lab webpage somewhere let me know. I couldn’t
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How hard is it to spend $261?
Posted on April 10th, 2009 2 commentsI got the letter from Michael Flaherty that was mentioned on the Allston Brighton Community Blog (1). According to Mr. Flaherty Harvard still has $28 billion in its endowment up from $9 billion in 1997. They could pay for the Science Center with cash and it would only take 3.6% of their current endowment. For the median American household that’s like spending $261 (1). Honestly we’d be happy if Harvard spent far less than $1 billion on the rental properties they own and on efforts to lease them. Maybe they should move some money from imaginary bucket number 1 into imaginary bucket number 2 and placate us and their students (3).
(1) http://allston02134.blogspot.com/2009/03/keeping-our-promises.html
(2) $45,016 (median US household income) * 16.1% (average US savings rate) * 3.6% ($1 billion/$28 billion)