Harvard Square and Lower Allston – on a map they are separated by just over a mile, but when it comes to the makeup of each neighborhood, they are worlds apart. Harvard Square is a tourist hot-spot full of first-class restaurants, trendy boutiques, coffee shops, and the red-brick architecture of the world’s top university.

Across the Charles River sits Lower Allston – a quiet, residential neighborhood that is cut off from the hustle of Harvard Ave and the rest of Allston by the Mass Pike. The rent is cheap, and the multi-family houses are big. There are few businesses within walking distance, but the area is accessible by a number of different bus routes. It is popular with families, and is home to many long-time residents.

While the two areas have had little connecting them outside of a bridge and a strip of pavement, Harvard has big plans to change that over the next ten years, and those living in Lower Allston are sure to feel the impact.

The university received approval from the Boston Redevelopment Authority in October to move forward with its “Institutional Master Plan”. The plan calls for the completion of nine different construction projects by 2024– all of them in Lower Allston.

Harvard is looking to connect its primary campus buildings in Cambridge to the land it owns along Western Ave. and North Harvard St. in Allston. The goal is to further bolster the university’s business school and science department by creating new classrooms, offices, meetings spaces, and graduate housing.

This will provide a big boost to an institution that has never had trouble attracting qualified applicants, but how will it impact Allston?

The part of the plan that will have the greatest impact is the redevelopment of a small area known as Barry’s Corner. This is the land adjacent to the busy intersection of North Harvard St. and Western Ave., currently bordered by a gas station and Dunkin’ Donuts on one side, and 7-Eleven and Stone Hearth Pizza on another.

Barry’s Corner was once a small but tight-knit residential community, but in the 1960’s  the Redevelopment Authority displaced 70 families and tore down their homes to make way for a luxury apartment building. If you have visited the area, you know this redevelopment wasn’t very successful, as the now-abandoned Charlesview Apartment Complex was the only substantial project to be completed in the vicinity.

Harvard’s plan calls for the construction of “Barry’s Corner Retail And Residential Commons” – which broke ground last month. The development will stretch up to nine stories tall, with ground floors housing retail shops and restaurants, and the upper floors reserved for 325 apartments.

Across the street will be a “grove” of large pine trees that will serve as a public park. The Charlesview apartments will be demolished to make way for a Harvard “innovation space” and a basketball arena, both of which will be completed closer to the end of the ten year timeframe.

If all goes according to plan, the Barry’s Corner development will bring the feel of Harvard Square into Allston.

Further down North Harvard St. will be an “Enterprise And Science District”, which will include a large science lab, as well as a hotel and convention center. Harvard hopes this development will attract businesses to settle in an adjacent area known as  “Allston Landing North” – currently a wasteland off Cambridge St. that the school will soon take ownership of. The long term plan calls for this area to be part of an “Enterprise Research Campus” where local businesses would work together with Harvard students and faculty on research and development projects.

Harvard plans to connect all of these new areas to the athletic complex and business school campus with new walking and biking trails, making them more open and accessible to Allston residents and helping connect Barry’s Corner to the Charles River and Cambridge.

So what are the downsides to all of these grand projects?

For starters, rent will likely go up in Lower Allston as the area becomes more desirable, especially to the grad students taking classes at the new academic buildings nearby. The addition of the 325 Barry’s Corner units (which will not serve as Harvard dorms) will help, but both Allston and Brighton are seeing nearly 100% occupancy rates right now, and the more competition there is for apartments, the more prices will rise.

The development is also likely to bring increased traffic and congestion to the area. Harvard plans to construct a number of new roads to compensate for this. As can be seen in the diagram below, “Ivy Lane”, “Academic Way”, and “Science Drive” will all cut through the space that is now occupied by a Harvard maintenance facility and the Charlesview apartment complex.

One major road (Stadium Way, illustrated below) would connect Western Ave. to Cambridge St. and alleviate much of the traffic on North Harvard St. and through Barry’s Corner. However, the road is not included in the ten-year plan and instead is positioned as a “long-term development” that is dependent on the completion of a traffic and parking assessment. The fact that this road is not a major priority has drawn criticism from some residents.

The changes in Lower Allston will create new obstacles for those living and working in the area, but if you’ve lived in Allston for more than a year or two, you know change is a constant – and you also know Allston has never lacked in the traffic congestion department.

While this project bears an almost-eerie resemblance to the 1960’s development proposal that destroyed a neighborhood, Harvard’s project plan makes it clear that community development and public access to the new spaces is a major priority.

The university has done an impressive job developing its Cambridge campus and having a positive impact on the area surrounding it, and it’s hard to imagine the university not being successful on this side of the river as well.