Why I Support the Institute's Housing Plan

To the Editor:

The Institute for Advanced Study is seeking approval to build faculty housing on its campus. I am writing to express my strong support for the project.

As a faculty member who lives on campus and a former member who spent his postdoctoral years at the IAS I can attest to the importance of the residential nature of IAS. Living on campus greatly facilitates my work, substantially increasing my interactions with IAS members and faculty. This residential nature makes the IAS unique and benefits members and faculty alike.

I believe that through the years the Institute has been a model citizen of this community. As a current neighbor of the Institute I deeply value the Institute's commitment to preserving open spaces that include the wonderful Institute Woods, nearly 600 acres of woodlands available to public use, and a substantial fraction of the Battlefield park. The proposed project will add 13 acres of new land that will be permanently preserved as open space next to the park.

During the last meeting of the Township's planning board, Professor Mark Peterson, a specialist in the American Revolution and early American History at the University of California at Berkeley, gave a very interesting presentation about how different localities preserve their historical heritage. Prof. Peterson helped towns in the Boston area to develop plans to better preserve their historical sites and enhance the experience of visitors. I moved to Princeton from the Boston area so I am very familiar with the sites he described having enjoyed them on multiple occasions. As I heard him speak, I could not help but think that the current discussion surrounding the Institute's project presents a perfect opportunity to improve the experiences of visitors to the Battlefield park and their connection to this areas past.  I was glad to learn that the Institute has stated that it was ready to be a partner in trying to enhance the experience of visitors to the Battlefield Park, for example by improving the interpretive materials provided in the site.

The Institute is by now also an important part of Princeton’s history. It has housed as faculty and members a large number of Nobel-prize winners, Field medalists and the intellectual leaders of many fields of study. In my own area, astrophysics, the contributions of scientists who spent time at the IAS can be found almost everywhere and have shaped our current understanding of such diverse topics as cosmology and celestial mechanics.

I am convinced that this project will not only benefit the IAS community but also the Princeton community at large. It will help maintain one of its vibrant academic institutions, it will add permanently preserved open land and can create the opportunity to improve the way the area's residents can interact with its history.

Matias Zaldarriaga

Princeton Township