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Another familiar Harvard Square sight disappears
By adamg on Thu, 03/31/2016 - 6:14pm
Ron Newman watched workers begin to take apart the Au Bon Pain minutes after it closed forever at 2 p.m. today.
In addition to shutting the sandwich place, Harvard has also chopped down the trees in the little plaza and plans to get rid of the chess tables as it prepares to embiggen what oldtimers still call the Holyoke Center.
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Comments
Chess tables are still there
They are outside the denuded and roped-off part of the plaza. And people were still using them this afternoon. I didn't focus on them in my pictures today, but you can see them in the background of this photo.
Edit: Someone else took this better photo which shows both the occupied chess tables and the sign being dismantled.
Are they really getting rid of the chess tables?
I didn't realize that. What a shame! I don't know why but I assumed those would stay. I have to say shame on Harvard if they are not keeping the chess tables.
I'm not sure Adam is correct about this
Let's see what happens once construction starts next week.
Will be relocated
Chess tables will be in another location in the Square. This will be a construction area come Monday.
Translation?
Never figured out what that meant. "Some good pain"?
"Of good bread"
My french
is rusty but I believe Au Bon Pain means "With the Good Bread"
Or
Or "at [the place that has] good bread"
making the Square even more inhospitable
leaving us with the Stalinist architecture of the Square Center as
the sole place of public congregation in what used to be a cool place to hang
good luck competing with the drug addicts for a place to sit down
at least the Square honestly reflects the unremitting ugliness of the architecture being taught at Harvard
ugh
Agreed.
I'm very unhappy about the loss of the little grove of lovely trees that were in front of what was Au Bon Pain, as well as all of the street trees that were killed on each side of the building. Needless to say, I avoid the Square like the plague.
Have you seen the plans?
Not that I expect it to change any minds, but there is a plan for Forbes Plaza and the building in general.
http://construction.harvard.edu/smith-campus-center-0
small trees sliced climate change twiced
Some fool is always making some stupid excuse for cutting down trees .What was it this time?
what oldtimers still call the
Wait...what do newtimers call it then other than the Holyoke Center?
Harvard calls it the Smith Campus Center now
and the now-empty space in front is officially Forbes Plaza, though I usually still call it Holyoke Center Plaza.
Is it named after Agent Smith
from The Matrix? That seems somehow appropriate.
No
no, It's named for Stan Smith
I hope Richard A. and Susan F
I hope Richard A. and Susan F. Smith know what their money is paying for.
I confess to some sadness
I suppose it's not great loss as a restaurant, but a lot of the Boston/Cambridge/Somerville that I remember from when I moved here in 1988 is gone, and that makes me sad. It was a fun and exciting place. I suppose it still is, but a lot of THAT fun is now gone.
Agree with overall sentiment
Agree with overall sentiment but not sure ABP was really a part of that....
My enduring memory of Au Bon Pain.
Penny from the much missed sitcom "Happy Endings."
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3benGrfdpUA