Renewed, and New Adapting and Changing, Harvard Undergoes a Building Boom

CRG-construction.final2 4/11/05 3:50 PM Page 24Q COMMENCEMENT & REUNION GUIDE Renewed, and New Adapting and changing, Harvard undergoes a building boom. he university is now clearly em- during the past barked on an historic spurt of year, the nature T physical growth and transforma- of that activity tion. Even before a shovel of earth is has changed, as turned in Allston, where enormous cam- an agenda of renovation projects aimed at Under ground and on columnar “stilts,” the pus expansion is envisioned, work just student amenities and undergraduate life LISE building will frame a new science quad. completed, under way, or about to start has suddenly come together, promising a which will be in full swing this sum- in other Harvard precincts suggests a rapid-fire adaptation, reuse, and renova- mer—coexists with the long-planned COMPUTER RENDERING building boom not seen since the growth tion of many familiar College haunts. creation of new academic space, particu- COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE COURTESY OF HARVARD FAS of the 1960s and ’70s (see page 61). But That burst of construction—much of larly in the sciences, and additional Uni- Providing the best in world-class construction services... 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Skanska USA Building Inc. www.skanskausa.com Harvard Magazine 24Q CRG-construction.final2 4/11/05 3:50 PM Page 24R COMMENCEMENT & REUNION GUIDE The College is in an especially student-friendly mood these days. versity housing, particularly for gradu- Recreation and Athletic Center began; maining space will become the home of ate students. by the time classes resume this fall, a for- student activities, organization o∞ces, The College is in an especially student- mer basketball court will have been and casual meeting areas. friendly mood these days. At spring transformed into split-level rehearsal Downtown, so to speak, the summer break, a renovation of the Quadrangle space and a performance venue for the ac- will also bring about three other projects COMPUTER RENDERING COURTESY OF HARVARD FAS COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE AND SASSKI ASSOCIATES tive undergraduate of immediate interest to student users. dance program. (It Just after Commencement, Sever Hall— lost its current the orangey brick classroom building to home, in the old the right of the Commencement stage— Radcli≠e gym, as will be prepped for a thorough exterior part of the terms of renovation, and the top floor will be re- creating the Rad- made into film and video studios and cli≠e Institute for o∞ces for the burgeoning film concen- Advanced Study). tration; beyond careful historical and ar- Hilles Library is also chitectural studies, the exterior work in for a makeover: will require a high level of expertise in the library is being masonry, metalwork, and other skilled downsized to a sin- building crafts. The Faculty of Arts and gle floor, and the re- Sciences (FAS) and Harvard Law School are also cooperating, financially and oth- A refurbished Hemen- erwise, on a stem-to-stern renovation of way Gymnasium will provide more attractive Hemenway Gymnasium (at left) this physical-fitness space. summer, to assure that young scholars, �� 24R May - June 2005 CRG-construction.final2 4/11/05 3:50 PM Page 24S COMMENCEMENT & REUNION GUIDE barristers-to-be, and their faculty men- tors can keep physically fit in comfort, without having to get themselves over to the Malkin Athletic Center or across the river to the main athletic facilities. Fi- nally, in what will be a remarkable feat of urban engineering, the all-but-collaps- ing Hasty Pudding Theatre will be shorn of everything but its façade, making way for the delicate two-year construction of a wholly new 272-seat theater within the current building’s footprint (see page 68). Expect a couple of years of din and daring crane work in the narrow con- fines of Holyoke Street. Meanwhile, FAS, the faculty with the most large-scale new construction in the works, has hardly taken a breather since The Center for Government and International Studies should open by late spring. dedicating the renovated Widener Li- brary last fall. The transgenic-mouse Like that facility, much of the new sci- looked like little more than a particu- laboratory facility, underneath the Bio- ence construction on campus is below- larly complex mudhole this academic logical Laboratories lawn, is nearly grade, so the Laboratory for Interface year. Yet much work has been done on finished, despite a construction-related Science and Engineering—behind the this 137,000-square-foot physical-sci- fire in the structure during the winter. Science Center and Music Building— ences and engineering building, with vi- ADD Inc �� Architecture �� Interiors �� Planning �� www.addinc.com �� Cambridge San Francisco Miami �� Leers Weinzapfel Associates �� Architects for the Harvard Science Center Expansion �� T: 617.423.5711 www. lwa-architects.com �� Harvard Magazine 24S CRG-construction.final2 4/7/05 10:47 AM Page 24T Over 40 years of service to Harvard University COMMENCEMENT & REUNION GUIDE bration-proof underground spaces suit- As to the question of where to house able for ultraclean, nanoscale research. everyone, that is being addressed, too. The same story applies to the 460,000- Cambridge has approved plans for square-foot Northwest Building, the townhouse apartments on various large flexible laboratory space entering parcels along Banks and Cowperthwaite construction north of the Museum of Streets, near Mather and Dunster Comparative Zoology, part of a complex Houses, and along Memorial Drive at that includes a huge subterranean Western Avenue (although the latter garage. (In the future, this “precinct” parcel is entangled in litigation by �� will include new Law School space, now neighbors). And—creating a perk that �� being planned along Massachusetts Av- others on the campus may envy—Har- enue and Everett Street, where another vard is partnering with a developer to garage awaits burial; more science labs; own one-third of the apartments in a Providing structural engineering services and perhaps Divinity School space.) high-rise complex rising now near the to Harvard for over 40 years. Leading the pack toward completion Longwood Medical Area. Those from and occupancy are the twin terra cotta- out of town may better know the neigh- clad Center for Government and Inter- borhood as the Fenway, home to the national Studies buildings on either side world-champion Boston Red Sox. Will of Cambridge Street. Commencement the doctors-in-training be diverted visitors may find only finishing work un- from their studies by peering out of derway come June, so the government their tower windows to catch another and international scholars can be repa- David Ortiz home run arcing into the triated from their temporary exile at 1033 night lights? It’s at least a possibility, in Mass. Ave (toward Central Square)— the Harvard campus and facilities of the 201 Broadway, 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139-1955 FAS’s swing space of choice these days. not-distant future. Tel 617 374.0000 Fax 617 374.0010 www.wai.com 24T May - June 2005.

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