COMMENCEMENT & REUNION GUIDE Ripening Nicely Construction near fruition • by Christopher Reed

oon harvard’s sidewalk superin- underway or nearly ripe to sat- tendents will turn their attention isfy. Soon the superintendents to Allston because that’s where the will hand in their punchlists hardhats will go. For the next 50 and move on. Syears, idle observers will oversee workers as they erect 10 million square feet of New college theatre. After buildings there and increase the Univer- 117 years of young gentlemen sity’s physical plant by more than 40 per- treading the boards in drag, the cent. If they are young superintendents Hasty Pudding building at num- now, they will get to see a complex—and bers 10 and 12 Holyoke Street exciting, one hopes—urban landscape was in dire need of a lift when take shape where there is not now much the students debouched in 2005. to engage the eye. But that’s tomorrow. Leers Weinzapfel Associates Today is still Cambridge’s moment, as Architects had the rear two- Harvard builds on some of the last bits of thirds of the structure demol- its open space on the Yard side of the ished, retaining the historic The New College Theatre will be home to Charles River. What follows is a look at front and restoring its lobby and masonry Hasty Pudding nonsense, but more as five substantial construction projects well bay. At back, they dug down—a popular well, in a building nearly twice as large.

Providing the best in world-class construction services...

Providing world-class construction services to make our clients successful - that’s our guiding principle at Skanska. We’re the name behind landmark projects throughout New England. Our broad expertise and innovative project planning, execution and management techniques make us the contractor-of-choice for any size project or capital building program in any industry. When you need the best in general construction services, turn to Skanska. We’ll ensure your next project is a world-class success.

Skanska USA Building Inc. www.skanskausa.com

Harvard Magazine 32W COMMENCEMENT & REUNION GUIDE

tems. On top of those, they built a high- quality theater and many other useful spaces. While the new 272-seat theater is smaller than the old 350-seater, it comes with fine support space—dressing rooms, a prop shop, a management o∞ce, a con- trol room, and staging areas. Multifunc- tional rooms may accommodate re- hearsals, performances, meetings, or classes. And there are o∞ces for the shared use of student clubs. “We have a strong arts heritage,” dean of the College Benedict H. Gross has said. “The Hasty Pudding Theatricals is in the forefront of that heritage, having been a fixture here since the late 1700s. We are very happy that we will be able to give them, and several other student perfor- mance groups at Harvard, a wonderful new home so that old traditions may con- tinue, and new ones may begin.” In early April, a superintendent would The Memorial Drive housing project direction in construction these days—to have observed the completion of the dec- includes a building with a low-rise section, shown here in the background, put two new floors below ground in orative woodwork in the south porch and and a high-rise section at front. which to stash most of the building’s sys- the installation of its granite steps.

FA+A 130 Prospect Street Architects Bruner/Cott Cambridge, MA 02139 architects and planners tel 617.492.8400 | brunercott.com

FA+A is proud to include among its prestigious academic clients photos: Richard Mandelkorn photos: Richard

McKim Mead & White gymnasium transformation Blackstone Office Renovation Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University Operations Services Winner of the 2007 Boston Society of Architects HONOR AWARD FOR SUSTAINABLE DESIGN Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc www.faainc.com

32X May - June 2007 COMMENCEMENT & REUNION GUIDE

University housing. On the site of a And so, instead, Harvard, the Riverside New housing, mostly for graduate former garden center on the corner of community, and the city opted for hous- students, nears completion on Cowper- Memorial Drive and Western Avenue, ing, for which the property was already thwaite Street (at left) and (at right) on Grant Street, both close to Mather House. near , the Harvard Uni- zoned (“University Housing on the Rise,” versity Art Museums had proposed to September-October 2005, page 63). As a putting up 300 units (500 beds) of new build a low, glass- and wood-clad mu- result of the compromise, in which Har- housing, mostly for graduate students, on seum designed by Renzo Piano. But a vard agreed to significant downzoning of two sites in the Riverside part of town. vocal group of local residents protested. some of the parcels, the University is The Memorial Drive site features a big

www.sbra.com Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott Architecture / Planning / Interiors / Est. 1874

Shepley Bulfinch at Harvard University

Shepley Bulfinch projects at Harvard include:

Harvard Medical School • Smith Hall • Langdell Hall • Fogg Art Museum • • • Adams House • • • Sever Hall • Austin Hall • • • Harvard Memorial Church • • Gordon McKay Applied Sciences Library • Quincy House • Leverett House Towers • Perkins Hall • Conant Hall • Sever Hall • Hemenway Gymnasium • Baker Hall • Dillon Field House • Harvard Dental School • Vanderbilt Hall • Harvard School of Public Health (1909) • Mallinkrodt Lab • Cyclotron Building • Herbarium • Biological Labs • Mather House • Gallatin Hall (Renovation)

Harvard Magazine 32Y COMMENCEMENT & REUNION GUIDE

Three wood-frame houses with multiple units, designed by Elkus/Manfredi Archi- tects, will sit at the back of the south piece of the site. Harvard will turn the land in front of these buildings into a public park. Al- though the University proposed at first to put a park at the interior of the property, close to neighborhood houses and away from the tra∞c-filled streets, Riverside residents and some city councilors insisted that it be where it will be for its public vis- ibility. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associ- ates will do the landscape design. Also as part of the deal that allowed this construction project to move for- ward, Harvard agreed to build and turn over to the city, after all the building per- mits it needed were in hand, 34 units of a≠ordable housing in a nearby former in- dustrial building that is part of the Har- vard-owned Blackstone power plant just The Laboratory for Integrated Science and structure—strikingly red, as will soon be across Western Avenue. Engineering, on Oxford Street, is the design of the Pritzker Award-winning Spanish apparent—designed by Kyu Sung Woo Elkus/Manfredi Architects are the au- architect Rafael Moneo. Architects for the north part of the parcel. thors also of the high- and low-rise build-

Creating a learning environment for life

Jones Lang LaSalle is proud to support Harvard in its mission to advance knowledge and promote understanding through the creation of a community where learning and life blend seamlessly. Our delivery of the Riverside Graduate Housing projects will help Harvard to meet its goals.

From mixed-use gateway developments, to research, technology, and housing projects, Jones Lang LaSalle helps institutions align real estate strategy with mission.

www.JonesLangLaSalle-Boston.com +1 617 523 8000

32Z May - June 2007 COMMENCEMENT & REUNION GUIDE ings on Cowperthwaite and Grant streets. On Grant, six wood-frame buildings, similar in scale to existing houses in the neighborhood, will hold six units each. On Cowperth- waite, one three-story wood-frame building will sit on the corner and play a facing-down role for a more massive glass-and-brick apartment house atop an underground garage. With these projects, the University moves toward its goal of housing 50 percent of its graduate students.

Multidisciplinary science. The 137,000-square-foot Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering, a.k.a. LISE, on Oxford Street, pro- vides a physical hub bringing to- gether physicists, members of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences communities, and the folk in the Science Center for collaboration in slightly larger. Only a third of the build- One end of the lengthy Northwest Science Building presents a face, with nanoscale and mesoscale science, the ing is above ground. The three-level base- Conant Hall at left, to the Museum of study of materials on an atomic scale or ment houses a dust-free environment for Natural History on Oxford Street.

Architect and Interior Designer for the Harkness Commons Renovation

ARCHITECTURE • PLANNING • INTERIOR DESIGN

www.tka-architects.com

Harvard Magazine 32AA COMMENCEMENT & REUNION GUIDE

made a major statement with glass. He by architect Craig Hartman of Skidmore, The Northwest has clad his impressive building with Owings, and Merrill. The building is not it—not the sort that glares or sparkles, to be the fiefdom of a specific academic Science Building is but glass of an opalescent persuasion that department, but will be deployed for col- changes color with the sky. laborative, cross-disciplinary work. Lab not to be the One absolutely essential component of space in the building (with 210,000 square a new building filled with would-be col- feet above ground and 260,000 square feet fiefdom of a laborators is, of course, a café, and LISE below, four stories up, four stories down) will have one, at ground level, looking will be assigned to groups of faculty who specific academic out toward a patio and to the Music share similar research interests—eventu- Building and the Science Center, which ally to about 30 faculty and their research department… abut the site. The newly created quad- groups of about 120 researchers and 180 rangle of which the patio is part will be sta≠. For example, molecular and cellular microlithography and nanofabrication, landscaped in a way that accommodates biologists will mix it up with applied facilities for materials synthesis, and a mi- an outdoor music performance space, physics and engineering in such areas as croscopy suite, all best located away from science benefiting the arts. It will also tissue engineering, biological imaging, direct outside light and vibrations. But accommodate diverse scientists wishing drug-delivery systems, or retinal implants, the nether regions will not be without to lunch in the outdoors and swap infor- developing engineering solutions to physi- some hint of day. The aboveground piece mation. “This will be a major improve- ological and neurological problems. of the building sits on three hollow ment to the backyard of the Science Cen- While primarily a laboratory facility, pedestals with glass exteriors, which fun- ter,” professor of physics Charles M. the building contains o∞ces, classrooms, nel light below, and two of the sides of Marcus has said. seminar rooms, storage space for collec- the underground portion have windows Just up the street in the North Yard, the tions, and a new chilled-water plant and facing a moat or light corridor. Northwest Science Building (see page 54) electrical substation. The inquiring side- LISE’s architect, Rafael Moneo, has has been given a flexible, open-floor plan walk superintendent will know that.

Over 45 years of service to Harvard University The quality of a good home. Boehm Architects

465 Medford Street Boston, MA 02129 HaleyAldrich.com photo: Anton Grassl/Esto architect: Miller/

“Green” Home High performance design and construction in a private truant residence – strategies for a sustainable future. CONSTRUCTION Leers Weinzapfel Associates MANAGERS www.mtruant.com 2007 American Institute of Architects Firm of the Year and architects of the new Library Services Building

75 Kneeland Street www.lwa-architects.com Boston, MA 02111 t: 617.423.5711

32BB May - June 2007