To the Editor:

In June the New York Times published a review of Stephen Holl’s design for a building in China, which is said to be “the place where architects are free to explore their most outlandish fantasies.” Of all places! It mentions only a tunneled highway as a mode of transportation to get to this “carefully engineered social machine.” What is missing is a mention of any public environmental impact review that might have occurred.

Princeton University has brought a Stephen Holl-designed Arts and Transit Hub proposal to the two town councils [Borough Council and Township Committee] that will be impacted by its implementation. After five years of public debate the councils passed zoning ordinances that allow the University to build as it pleases.

Some may charge that this is an example of the bureaucratic tyranny of democracy shackling “private” enterprise. I applaud the hard work of the public servants who claimed the plan did not answer essential questions concerning the growing “village” off campus — questions that need to be answered by a higher authority. That authority was once NJ Transit. Apparently the University has purchased this authority to answer all transit questions by and for themselves.

The present rail transportation function of this “hub” project should be promoted not diminished. I hope the council’s opinion inspires all those who are on private and public payrolls to listen up to those leaders on the other side of Nassau Street and think globally, then act locally. Out of the dissonance there now should come a harmony of purpose not just for Princeton but in relation to the private mobility networks that now threaten the health of the world.

A Special Improvement District much greater than all of the Princetons should be created to engineer the increasing of rail ridership and the building of a separate transportation network for the pedestrian-based communities that are beginning to reappear everywhere. This is the missing link in the development of the plan. May the councils’ voice be heard in the final day of review of what is to become the Princeton Arts and Transit Hub and let’s hope the construction will have a return on investment for the next 150 years for the station that has just been reopened after 25 years of irresponsible neglect.

James Harford Jr.
Lake Drive