First assignment pre

1. My Freshman Year Dorm
Harvard Square Around the T
The mixed use of retail spaces
4D
MOVIE
Church St THEATER
Palm
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
GROW
YOUR OWN
FOOD BAR er S
t
Brattle St.
START-
UP BOSTON
LABS CELL
PHONE
FREE
CAFE THE WORLD
By Albert Ching | MIT Masters of City Planning Candidate, 2012 | Intro to Urban Design and Development Assignment #1
Source: Google Maps Aerial View of Harvard Square. Retrieved October 24, 2011 from Google Maps website: www.maps.google.com

2. 1898
2009 1996 1990s
1958
Source: Albert Ching. Taken October 15, 2011 in Harvard Square

3. HYPOTHESIS
In many ways, Harvard Square
Asia around the T is a leading indicator
of how many of the most important
places in the world have and will
The World evolve into the future. It was put
on the map by a great institution,
Internet connected to the local world
Historic MIT outside by transit investments and
inextricably linked to the global
Harvard
world by the internet. While forces
retail form like nostalgia may attempt to
Harvard preserve not just the form but also
Fixed street S q u a r e University the uses of the space, the power of
retail economics will likely keep its
grid a r o u n d uses attentive to a rapidly
Tran changing clientele. That clientele
t h e T spo will be a increasingly Asian, both
rt
Nostalgia Boston tech savvy and tech wary, inclined
Retail to recycle as much as to consume,
and will make more of their
Economics purchases through the
smartphone than at a cash
Digital technologies register. While the physical form of
the Square will remain largely the
same, digital technologies will
redraw the boundaries etched by
the founders of Newtowne almost
400 years ago.

4. PAST | 1631s to 1950s | An original, transit-oriented development
PRESENT | 1950s – today | Retail economics overpowers nostalgia
FUTURE | Today and beyond | The mixed use of retail spaces

5. THE PAST
An original transit-oriented,
development 3!
1631 – 1950’s 1910s
Opening of subway
Harvard
Streetcar & Subway Transport 4!
Retail Association
1911
Despite the growing prominence of Harvard, the Square was a sleepy village for Creation of Harvard
almost 300 years. It wasn’t until the electrification of the horsecar and later the Square
addition of a prominent subway line in the late 1800s which significantly increased 2! Businessman’s
commuter traffic and started the development of the retail square that we know Association
today. An original transit-oriented development, the Square was not left to market 1880s
forces but its retail character was scripted intentionally by business owners and Electrification of
Harvard itself (something that MIT should be doing for Kendall Square today). the horsecar
1! 1631
Founding of Harvard
Square
by Massachusetts
Bay Colony; original
street grid lay
1636
Founding of Harvard
University

6. Original Harvard Square Street Grid, 1635 Overlayed with Current Google Maps Street Grid, 2011
1!
Founding of
Newtowne
1630s
Harvard Square or
Newtowne as it was
originally called was the first
planned town in North
America, chosen by the Dunster St was the principal street
Proprietors of the with the first meeting house on the
SW corner of Mt. Auburn and the ferry
Massachusetts Bay to be
landing down south
their capital in 1631.
The street grid established
in 1631 is still in use today.
In 1636, Harvard University
was established.
Source: Cambridge Historical Commission (1999). Originally appeared in Final Report
of the Harvard Square Historic District Study Committee. Retrieved on October 24,
2011 from Cambridge Historical Commission website, Page 1: http://
www2.cambridgema.gov/historic/hsqhistory1.html
Route to the sea (or the Charles River)
Source (Overlay Image): Google Maps View of Harvard Square. Retrieved October 24,
2011 from Google Maps website: www.maps.google.com

7. Harvard Square Streetcar Station Postcards, 1900s-1920’s
2!
Electrification Diagram of Harvard Square Streetcar
Routes
of the horsecar
1880s-1910s
The electrification of the
horsecar, also know as the
streetcar, transformed Harvard
Square from a purely local to a
regional destination. As a major
interchange point for 5 suburban
towns, the Square would take in
up to 20,000 commuters on its
busiest summer Sundays.
That congestion on the surface is Source: Albert Ching. Drawn on October 18, 2011
what would precipitate the need
for the next transport
investment.
Look, there were automobiles back then too!
Source: eBay. Retrieved on October 24, 2011 from eBay website: http://www.ebay.com/itm/
CAMBRIDGE-MA-Harvard-Square-Old-Postcard-/350489888717?
_trksid=p4340.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA
%252BUA%252BIEW%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D15%26pmod%3D200530005650%26ps
%3D63%26clkid%3D3669084619401838596#ht_1252wt_1265

8. 3!
Harvard Square Rapid Transit Station, 1927
Here comes the
subway
1910s Harvard Square Subway
Opening Headline, 19112 Takes 9-10
The Harvard Square subway line minutes today
was started in 1909 and completed
in 1911 at a cost of $11.75 million
dollars ($275 million dollars today).
Interestingly, Harvard Square
retailers feared that the new transit
line to Boston would actually draw
away business from Harvard
towards the other towns in
Cambridge. (Boy were they wrong!)
Source: NY Times (1912, March 24).
Cambridge Subway Open. Retrieved on
It was this fear and the new October 24, 2011 from Harvard Square
Business Association Archives website:
opportunity of thousands of http://www.harvardsquare.com/CMSPages/
commuters that would lay the Getfile.aspx?guid=968188c8-b223-4533-
ac52-4c73d6d2eced
foundation for the distinct retail
vision that now characterizes
Harvard Square. Source: MIT Rotch Visual Collections. (between 1954-1959). Harvard Square Subway Station Entrance.
Retrieved on October 24, 2011 from Flickr website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mit-libraries/3441852660/

9. First Harvard Square Business
4! Man Association Bulletin, 1911
The unique retail Proposal to Build High Rises in the Square That Was
Ultimately Defeated, 1968
vision
1910s
The Harvard Square Business Man’s
Association was founded in 1911 in
response to the threat of the subway but
the retail association along with Harvard
saw this moment as an opportunity to Source: Harvard Square Business Men’s Association
(1911, April). First Issue. Retrieved on October 24,
blend the form of the Square with the 2011 from Harvard Square Business Association
Archives website: http://www.harvardsquare.com/
fabric of the surrounding university to CMSPages/Getfile.aspx?guid=26c5161f-2953-4e9a-
create a unique retail experience. afda-bbc38b07fd10
“In an ideal metropolitan area, both the
"collegiate square" and the "centre of a Special Harvard Square Zoning
high-class residence district" should be Overlay Which Limits Heights
"quickly reached from the city, but . . . to 60 Feet, Today
quiet in use and appearance”
(Cambridge Historical Commission,
1999)
Since then, any development proposals
to significantly change the character of
Source: Cambridge Historical Commission (1999). Originally appeared in Final Report of
the Square (especially by building up) the Harvard Square Historic District Study Committee. Retrieved on October 24, 2011
have been vehemently opposed and from Cambridge Historical Commission website, Page 4: http://www2.cambridgema.gov/
historic/hsqhistory4.html
today, Harvard Square is governed by
special zoning guidelines to preserve its Source: Retrieved on October 24, 2011 from Dept of
Cambridge Community Development website: http://
historic character. www2.cambridgema.gov/cdd/cp/zng/zmap/
zng_map.html#zomap
Source: Cambridge Historical Commission (1999). Originally
appeared in Final Report of the Harvard Square Historic
District Study Committee. Retrieved on October 24, 2011
from Cambridge Historical Commission website, Page 1:
http://www2.cambridgema.gov/historic/hsqhistory1.html

10. Retail economics
THE PRESENT
overpowers nostalgia
1950’s - Present
Harvard
Retail Economics
Internet
Nostalgia
While the physical form of the modern Square was largely set
decades before, the retail uses within the Square have evolved
dramatically over the past 5 decades. The protest era of the 1960’s
and 70’s ushered in a set of utterly distinct retailers – the largest
concentration of independent bookstores in the world, tailors, and
tobacco shops.
Unfortunately, as the Square has become a prime retail haven, those
small shops that have served the community for decades have given
way to a flurry of higher-margin banks, cell phone stores, and
national food chains who serve not just the students on campus but
also a significantly large and growing visitor population.
According to the Harvard Crimson, a student newspaper, “Despite
the common misperception, there is no “master puppeteer” running
Harvard Square, and many of the property owners, including
Harvard, do their best to ensure that the Square remains unique. If
anything, the consumers are responsible for these changes, which
reflect a changed Square customer more than they do a changed
epoch” (Harvard Crimson, 2011).
Source: Harvard Crimson Staff (2011, May 26). More Than a Square. Retrieved on October 24, 2011
from Harvard Crimson website: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/5/26/harvard-square-
squares-businesses/

11. It is becoming a matter of general remark that the economic
emphasis is changing; it is shifting from how to make things
to how to dispose of things that are made so that the
machine can be kept in constant operation. The problem
before us today is not how to produce the goods, but how to
produce the customers. Consumptionism is the science of
compelling men to use more and more things.
Consumptionism is bringing it about that the American
citizen's first importance to his country is no longer that of
citizen but that of consumer.
-Samuel Strauss (1870-1953), "Things Are in the Saddle,"
Atlantic Monthly, Nov 1924
Source: Quotations on Consumerism / Overconsumption. Retrieved on October 24, 2011 from University of
St. Thomas website: http://www.stthomas.edu/recycle/consume.htm

12. Harvard Square, 1963 Harvard Square
Then: Catering to the
Everyday Student
Consumer
1940s-60s
22 RESTAURANTS, MOSTLY AFFORDABLE
7 BOOKSHOPS
1 PICTURE FRAME SHOP
1 MOVIE THEATER
SEVERAL BANKS
SEVERAL MEN’S CLOTHING STORES
ASSORTMENT OF HARDWARE, GROCERY, DRESS,
APOTHECARY, & BARBER SHOPS
Source: Cambridge Historical Commission (1999). Originally
appeared in Final Report of the Harvard Square Historic District
Study Committee. Retrieved on October 24, 2011 from Cambridge
Historical Commission website, Page 3: http://
www2.cambridgema.gov/historic/hsqhistory3.html
Source: Lotman, Mo. Harvard Square: An Illustrated History Since 1950. Retrieved on October 24, 2011 from The Boston Phoenix
website: http://thephoenix.com/boston/arts/89934-photos-harvard-square-1950s-and-beyond/?page=7#TOPCONTENT

13. STARBUCKS
LFSTORES MINT JULEP
BORDER CAFE LOEWS CINEMA
BODY SHOP
FIRE & ICE
DADO TEA
TISTIK C’EST BON
MARKET IN THE
CLUB PASSIM /
SQUARE OTTO
VEGGIE PLANET
CVS
BANK OF AMERICA
HARVARD COOP
Harvard CRIMSON
CORNER
Square Now: OUT-OF-TOWN
NEWS
CITIZEN’S BANK
N
Higher End ED E STRIA R R TEALUWEET S STARBUCKS RESERVE
P RRIDO OUTFATN
U B XE PINK BERRY
O
Boutique TAIL C
RUSSELL HOUSE
I ER CAMBRIDGE SAVINGS
RE T
DIC ESS MU S VISION HOUSE
BRO KSON DO AU BON PAIN
Retail Oct THE PAPYRUS
R’S
PIZZERIA UNO’S
2011 CVS ALDO
LE FOOT SPORTIF
WHI VITAMIN SHOPPE
7 CAFES TNE
Y’S LUSH
MILLION YEAR LEO
18 FOOD ’S P
PICNIC LAC RADIO SHACK
E
14 STUDENT RETAIL HUNT’S PHOTO NEWBURY
24 SPECIALTY RETAIL COMICS LA FLAMME
VERIZON WIRELESS KOFUKU
3 BANKS AMERICAN EXPRESS
SEVEN-ELEVEN
4 TOURIST
JOHN HARVARD’S
FELIPE’S
4 VACANT AUDIO LAB LE’S RESTAURANT
7 HISTORIC RETAIL
(BEFORE 1970) STARBUCKS

14. Retail can be meaningful
(and I’m not saying that just to
make Dennis happy)
I spent four of the most formative years of my
life at Harvard as an undergraduate and the
small shops that dotted the Square became
an integral part of my student life, the context Bikram yoga studio
and the cause of many lifelong memories. (formerly office of my first job
The freshman year convenience store runs to as a web surfer)
C’est Bon in 35 below temperatures, Friday
evenings listening to CDs at Tower Records,
sharing the blooming onion at Chili’s, late
night tomato basil runs to Pinnochio’s,
avoiding slick back hair guy at La Flamme, or
hangover smoothie and wraps at the Wrap.
Perhaps even the biweekly trips to CVS will hit
a soft spot in my heart. Great retail does not
come from nowhere – and in the case of
Harvard Square, it arose from very thoughtful
intention from business and community
stakeholders.
Source: Albert Ching. Taken October 15, 2011 in Harvard Square
Yet, 5 years later when I returned to the
Square, I found myself in unfamiliar territory. As I (hopefully) wrap up my final year Maybe it’s not up to me though. As
The few retail-heavy blocks that surround the in Cambridge, I am worried that my Gavin Kleepsies, Executive Director of
T station had been the site of significant future return trips will be even more the Cambridge Historical Society notes,
change, some documented heavily in The jolting, especially as the the global “Harvard Square is constantly changing
Crimson like the closure of treasured marketplace begins to price out the and that’s the constant.” The problem
independent bookstores for much maligned local shops for aspatial brands or for students and residents is, “Everyone
cell phone service shops. The office where I concepts tested on a population of wants Harvard Square to remain what it
spent my first summer after college as a web- multi-talented, multi-lingual, multi- was when they first saw it.”
surfer for a financial services firm had national students increasingly
become in some strange bizzarro-world way, connected to everyplace and
the location of my bikram yoga practice. ultimately to no place at all (like me).

15. STARBUCKS
BORDER CAFE LOEWS CINEMA
FIRE & ICE
If a place disappears from
our memory, does it make a
sound? What is C’EST BON
our role as CLUB PASSIM /
VEGGIE PLANET 4 out of 30 places
designers
CVS in 8 years may not
to preserve
seem like a lot of
meaning and turnover-- but
FLEET BOSTON
memory? juxtaposed next to
an institution that
HARVARD COOP has remained firm
for almost 400
years, it does.
OUT-OF-TOWN
NEWS
TEA ABERCROMBIE & FITCH
URB LUX
A E
OUT N FINAGLE A BAGLE
FITE
RS
DIC
BRO KSON AU BON PAIN
THE
R’S
PIZZERIA UNO’S
CVS
HERRELL’S ICE CREAM
NEWBURY
4 OUT OF BUSINESS TOWER RECORDS COMICS LA FLAMME
26 MEANINGFUL
LOCATIONS DEVELOPED SEVEN-ELEVEN
from 1999-2003 JOHN HARVARD’S
My Harvard Square Map LE’S RESTAURANT
Oct 2011 STARBUCKS

16. IS THIS THE FUTURE?
Orchard Ion
Singapore’s most desired
retail location
Source: Albert Ching. Taken July 23, 2011 in Singapore
(Of course not.)

17. HARVARD SQUARE
2100
2011 Source: Albert Ching. Taken July 23, 2011 in Singapore
2100
Source: Albert Ching. Taken October 15, 2011 in Harvard Square

18. The mixed use of retail spaces
2011 and beyond
4D The further development of the
MOVIE
smartphone technologies and
Church St THEATER
robust online shopping will
deemphasize retail spaces as
Palm mainly places to make
GROW
YOUR OWN
er S purchases.
FOOD BAR
While the physical form of the
t
Brattle St. Square will look the same, the
START- area will become subdivided
UP digitally by use along a
LABS CELL hundred different lines as
PHONE
FREE retailers become interested in
CAFE blurring the line between
peoples’ everyday life and their
own brands.
THE FUTURE

19. Everywhere is a Store
Source: PSFK Consulting (2011). Future of Retail. Retrieved on October 24, 2011 from SlideShare
website: http://www.slideshare.net/PSFK/psfk-presents-future-of-retail-report

20. Retail Spaces
as Brand
Experiences
Starbucks
Reserve
This location opened in
2011 is only the 3rd location
in the world (besides
Seattle and Dublin). It
features a coffee bar, extra
large study spaces, and is
packed every hour of the
day.
Source: Albert Ching. Taken October 15, 2011 in Harvard Square

21. Retail Spaces
as Start-Up
Spaces
Harvard Harvard’s Recently Created Innovation
Lab, 2011
Innovation Lab
Gordon Jones, director of the Harvard
Innovation Lab joked that he “would
love nothing more than to blow up a
building in Harvard Square and put
this building there” (Harvard Crimson,
2011).
Source: Miraval, Nathalie & Rebecca Robbins (2011, September 16).
Innovation Lab Looks to Help Start-Ups. Retrieved on October 24,
2011 from Harvard Crimson website: http://www.thecrimson.com/
article/2011/9/16/jones-harvards-business-ilab/

22. Retail Spaces as
Live Concert
Venues
Best Buy
Source: Retrieved on October 24, 2011 from Best Buy Live
website: http://www.liveatbestbuy.com/

23. Retail Spaces
as Protest
Spaces
Vietnam War
Vietnam War Protest in Harvard Square, 1967
Source: Unknown (1967, June 11). Retrieved on October 24, 2011 from SuperStock
website: http://www.superstock.co.uk/stock-photos-images/4048-1897

24. Pinnochio’s
Harvard Square
Sicilian Artichoke
Sicilian Pepperoni
Some things will hopefully
always stay the same.