Busch-Reisinger Project Hires Contractor

Harvard has hired a contractor and is moving forward with plans to construct the new Busch-Reisinger museum building, the University official in charge of the project said yesterday.

The contracting firm of Walsh Brothers is providing what Harvard's project manager Elizabeth J. Buckley called "pre-construction services," including a preliminary cost analysis and recommendations on the building of the museum.

Buckley said in an interview following a lecture by architect Charles Gwathmey, whose firm designed the plans for the museum, that after initial suggestions are made, Walsh Brothers will give Harvard a guaranteed maximum price (GMP) for the construction. The GMP is the highest amount of money needed to complete the project.

Buckley said the University will then decide whether to accept the estimate and begin construction or whether to open bidding with other contractors.

University officials said they anticipate that Walsh Brothers will complete the GMP by the summer of 1989. If Harvard rejects the company, construction would be delayed, but the building will probably be finished within two years, Buckley said.

"Early in 1991 is very realistic," she said. An architect involved in the project said last week its complexities might make it difficult to complete construction on time.

Harvard University Art Museums Director Edgar Peters Bowron said he estimated that the building will cost $7.4 million, $6.8 million of which has been raised to date.

Gwathmey has said the new building was initially commissioned for $6 million, but Fogg Art Museum Director of Public Relations Peter Walsh said the success of the fundraising drive led the University to increase the scope of the project. Walsh added that the original plans called for a two-story building, but the new wing will now have two-and-a-half stories.

Individuals and corporations in West Germany have donated $5 million, with American contributions accounting for the rest, Walsh said. He said the primary donor was Werner Otto, the founder of the world's largest mail-order company, for whom the wing will be named.

Walsh said that while he did not "know what [Otto's] motivation was" in deciding to give money to the Busch-Reisinger, he added that "Otto has a great deal of respect for Harvard."

Bowron said he thought that "what engaged [Otto] was the context of Busch-Reisinger and the role it could play as a cultural bridge between Germany and America." He added that Otto's son attends Harvard.

Harvard hired Gwathmey's firm to design plans for the Busch-Reisinger--which has a collection of Central and Northern European art--last year. The New-York based firm has worked previously at other universities and designed a proposed wing for the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan