How Harvard and Allston slowly thawed a chilly relationship

As Harvard University finds itself at odds with an aggressive Trump administration, it finds another, older relationship improving — one where the school was once seen as the aggressor.

In March, the school reached an agreement on the latest 10-year development plan in Allston. It’s the latest step in a relationship between the world’s wealthiest university and the neighborhood it owns a third of the land in — one that has evolved from a history of distrust to a growing understanding of each other.

“We don’t trust them as far as we can throw them, so to speak,” said Tony D’Isidoro, president of the Allston Civic Association. “But I think we work much better, and I think they’re a bit more transparent and accountable, which maybe in the past they weren't.”

D’Isidoro is part of the Harvard Allston Task Force, the group of Allston community members who work with Harvard on its development plans. They spent 14 months negotiating Harvard’s second “Institutional Master Plan,” outlining development in the neighborhood through 2035.

The plan predicts minimal institutional development in Allston over the next decade. Only six projects were approved by the city’s planning department, and calls for funding affordable housing projects and a new community center were left out of the final document, disappointing community leaders.

But now, some neighborhood residents say their perspective has changed. As they watch Harvard fight Trump over funding cuts, they said they’re grateful for the recent deal and for the resources Harvard has brought to the neighborhood over the years.

“I’ve worked with a lot of people,” D’Isidoro said. “They’re very jealous of us, because they don’t have a Harvard University.”

Harvard’s footprint in Allston, which now totals more than 360 acres, didn’t appear overnight.

Harvard Stadium and its business school campus have been in the neighborhood for over 100 years, but rapid expansion came late last century in 1989 when Beal Companies, a Boston developer, began buying up land in Allston.

It turned out Harvard was in the driving seat of the decade-long land grab, a stealthy play that sowed distrust in the community. Mayor Thomas Menino created the Harvard Allston Task Force in 2006 to give community members a say in how Harvard would develop its neighborhood holdings.

In 2013 the group helped the city negotiate Harvard’s first master plan, an ambitious outline detailing nine projects to expand the university’s campus and provide benefits for Allston residents.

Not all of that initial master plan panned out: The intersection of Barry’s Corner hasn’t become the “engaging public realm” Harvard laid out, but the Harvard Ed Portal, a educational, cultural and professional development resource for the Allston community, has been a lasting success, community members say.

Then there’s the commercial real estate, which makes up most of Harvard’s acreage. One of its landmark deals is the Enterprise Research Campus, a project under construction that will transform an industrial rail yard into a mixed-use development center, including a new home for the American Repertory Theater.

Through the research campus’ approval process, D’Isidoro said, “mutual respect” began building between the task force and Harvard. Cindy Marchando, another member of the task force, said both sides have worked hard to develop a rapport.

“By understanding each other’s perspective,” she said, “you walk away with beautiful deals like what we’ve done with the ERC.”

Still, task force members said they’re always pushing for more from the university. They want Harvard to assess some of the land they own outside of major projects to find new space for housing and an arts district.

Allston has one of the lowest owner occupancy rates in the city and “severely lacks a public realm,” said Tim McHale, a member of the task force who asked for funding to get a new arts district off the ground in bargaining for the new plan.

“I was disappointed that we couldn't get more public realm, more big thinking, more commitment from Harvard to play a role in shaping the public side of our neighborhood,” McHale said. “They're shaping the institutional, corporate and biomedical side. But with that comes great responsibility to take care of its people.”

D’Isidoro pointed to a few recent deals as models for future partnerships.

For example, a 2007 land swap between the owners of Charlesview Apartments and Harvard allowed the university to expand its business school campus. Charlesview used the money to build new apartments and expand services.

“It was a business deal that worked out well for Harvard but also worked out well for Charlesview and the Allston-Brighton community,” said Charlesview Executive Director Jo-Ann Barbour. “We’ve been able to really fund a lot of services and programs in the community over the last 10 years.”

In 2021, Harvard donated an acre of land to a developer where 43 affordable condominiums will be built on Seattle Street as part of the Research Campus agreement, and funded the purchase of a 49-unit senior housing complex at North Harvard Street earlier this year.

“We're hoping that there are some more sites out there that really they don't need, and they could easily put it up for bid and get affordable housing,” D’Isidoro said. “It goes a long way to help them in the community.”

Despite what some saw as an underwhelming institutional plan for the next decade, lots of construction is taking place in Allston right now, said Mark Handley, Harvard’s director of community and government affairs. It includes the affordable housing developments, the American Repertory Theatre and graduate housing he hopes will bring more people to support businesses in once-sparse lower Allston.

And there’s more to come: the future of the Enterprise Research Campus, including Harvard’s plan to transform the site of an old freight rail depot along the river into a new neighborhood with the Massachusetts Turnpike realignment project.

As Harvard faces the threat to its federal funding – and possibly its tax-exempt status – several task force members are glad they came to an agreement on the university’s plans, even if it lacks a broader vision community leaders wanted for the next 10 years.

“I was reluctantly agreeing to it, but it's hindsight right now,” said task force member Barbara Parameter. “I think it was the right decision.”

This story is part of a partnership between WBUR and the Boston University Department of Journalism.