It’s not exactly Harvard destroying Allston, but Boston University has some Londoners upset about air conditioning units.
… BU’s London [campus] installed five condenser cooling units behind its Victorian town house in the summer of 2008. They say the bulky equipment is an eyesore and a noise nuisance, and have stepped up their protests in recent months after it became clear that the units were not going away easily.
… Residents want BU to relocate the Mitsubishi units to a less visible location, one that can’t be seen or heard by BU’s neighbors. Committee members say they recently appealed to college officials in Boston, including the president’s office and the board of trustees, to no avail.
Residents have flooded the planning department in the British capital with complaints. The constant humming of the units, which are supposed to operate year-round, deter them from spending time outside and from sleeping with their windows open, they say.
… Under one plan, BU would raise a dividing wall to make the units less visible. But residents say that would block precious sunlight from some adjacent homes. It would also prevent one resident’s cats from access to the garden…