Harvard University, is in the middle of a massive renovation project of its real estate portfolio, costing many hundreds of millions of American dollars. It is cash money well spent. Included are dorms, faculty offices, residential and classroom buildings. The university has some exemptions from state and U.S. laws regarding making their buildings wheelchair accessible. They are permitted with their variances to make a cluster of buildings accessible, one of several. But it does not eliminate barriers to some buildings. If a person wants to visit another person in a building that is exempt he or she cannot access the building.
In these images one building of faculty offices at 8 Prescott Street was just re-opened in May 2014, after a major renovation. You can see one improvement is making the building wheelchair accessible. Harvard built a wooden wheelchair ramp which leads to a rear door making the building compliant with state and U.S. laws. 8 Prescott Street is a former dormitory. Ted Kaczynski, also known as "The Unabomber," was housed at this location for his freshman year at Harvard.
More recently it was the offices of the Creative Writing Department. It is currently a House Master's residence. You can see that it is a mostly two story building with about 12 or maybe 14 rooms in the building. Having a wheelchair ramp makes it easy for students and faculty who need to visit someone in the building.
Moving along Prescott Street across Broadway to 85 and 95 Prescott Street is a two-building complex. Each part has 41 housing units for Harvard Affiliates. Neither part of the buildings is wheelchair accessible. For the past three years Harvard University spent several million dollars upgrading the buildings. They added a new fire alarm system. New doors, new elevators, a sprinkler system, and new smoke and CO2 detectors for each unit. The halls were cleaned of tiles with asbestos and replaced by rugs. New lights and mailboxes were added. Windows were repaired. A new intercom system was installed. New lighting as well.
They added a new water main from the city water supply to the two buildings. In 2014, they are adding
new external lighting. They repaired and replaced bricks on outside of the buildings. They repaired and replaced window sills. They replaced floor tiles in laundry area. They built new walls in basement. They painted basement floors. They replaced outside concrete stairs to five basement entrances, and replaced the doors. They painted doors to all 82 apartment units. They replaced inside wooden stairs to basement. They replaced hot water heaters, and installed new boilers.
But the door to the elevators remain two feet wide, less than the required 36 inches for proper compliance with accessibility codes. Nor are the stairs passable for persons who use wheelchairs.
Harvard's reasoning is that there is a building support column next to the elevator which made it impossible to install a wider elevator. But the building column is only on one side of the elevator. The left side in these images show there is no column on the left side of the elevator. So what is their reasoning for not making these two buildings wheelchair accessible?
What makes this lack of access compelling is that in 2014 a major effort is underway by the university administration and alumni to comply with the requirements of Title IX of the Education
Act of 1972, outlawing sex discrimination in higher education. A task force chaired by a prominent psychiatrist studies how to comply with the requirements of this law. There are frequent articles, essays, and memos published by concerned university stake holders.
But the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 remain un-enforced and unaddressed. Harvard is allowed to continue discrimination in housing for persons with disabilities.
New ramp at 8 Prescott Street
Slow graded ramp from sidewalk.
Front entrance, 8 Prescott Street
8 Prescott Street
85-95 Prescott Street
85-95 Prescott Street
85 Prescott Street, Front Entrance
95 Prescott Street, Front Entrance
85-95 Prescott Street
85 Prescott Street
85 Prescott Street
Elevator 85 Prescott Street
Elevator 85 Prescott Street
Elevator door 24 inches wide 85 Prescott Street
Elevator door 24 inches wide 85 Prescott Street
Rear inside entrance new stairs 85 Prescott Street
Rear outside entrance new stairs 85 Prescott Street
Rear outside entrance new stairs 95 Prescott Street
Rear outside entrance new stairs 85 Prescott Street
Rear outside entrance new stairs 95 Prescott Street
Rear outside entrance new stairs 95 Prescott Street
