LETTERS Editor: John S. Rosenberg Executive Editor: Christopher Reed Senior Editor: Jean Martin 02138 Managing Editor: Jonathan S. Shaw Deputy Editor: Craig Lambert Cambridge Associate Editor: Elizabeth Gudrais Production and New Media Manager: Mark Felton Narcissistic writing, jealousy taxes, women’s basketball, fiery faith Assistant Editor: Nell Porter Brown Art Director: Jennifer Carling Berta Greenwald Ledecky ARGUING ABOUT ARCHITECTURE Undergraduate Fellows Joan wickersham’s Samuel Bjork, Liz Goodwin exploration of Editorial Interns: “Bricks and Politics” (September-Octo- Ashton R. Lattimore, Anna Reinhard ber, page 50) evokes a famous remark, at- Web Intern: Blaise Freeman tributed to Marcel Duchamp, that “all great art is irritating at first.” This does Contributing Editors not, of course, imply that all irritating art John T. Bethell, John de Cuevas, Adam becomes great. Personally: Hollein yes, Goodheart, Max Hall, Jim Harrison, Harbour Fraser Hodder, Christopher S. Spangler Center no. Dan Rosenfeld, M.B.A. ’79 Johnson, Adam Kirsch, Colleen Lannon, Deborah Smullyan, Mark Steele, Janet Beverly Hills, Calif. Tassel, Edward Tenner We have been cursed with the sort of Editorial and Business O≠ice architectural abomination that darkens 7 Ware Street, the cover of this issue of , Cambridge, Mass. 02138-4037 Harvard Magazine Tel. 617-495-5746; fax: 617-495-0324 the high-rise housing complex at One Website: www.harvardmagazine.com Western Avenue. The worst of the 1950s Reader services: could not have produced a more jumbled, of planning complete neighborhoods, 617-495-5746 or 800-648-4499 less attractive building on that site. It re- rather than individual buildings, in order flects nothing of its context. It mars and to avoid ending up with a series of pro- HARVARD MAGAZINE INC. President: Henry Rosovsky, JF ’57, shadows the beautiful neo-Georgian cam- jects that are disconnected.” Word has it Ph.D. ’59, LL.D. ’98. Directors: Richard pus of the Harvard Business School and that Princeton also wants its new build- H. Gilman, M.B.A. ’83, Leslie E. will be an eyesore as well for the new ings to reflect the style and context of its Greis ’80, Alex S. Jones, NF ’82, Bill Harvard campus in Allston. historical campus. Kovach, NF ’89, Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Sadly, one of the truly commendable re- To me, this sounds like the exact oppo- Alan J. Stone, Richard Tuck cent additions to Harvard’s building in- site of what Harvard has been doing. Harvard Magazine (ISSN 0095-2427) is published bimonthly ventory, the Spangler Center, by noted ar- If you are wondering why the Boston by Harvard Magazine Inc., a nonprofit corporation, 7 chitect Robert A. M. Stern, is dismissed Society of Architects’ Parker Medal has Ware Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138-4037, phone 617- 495-5746; fax 617-495-0324. The magazine is supported by by critics who favor “visionary” designs not been awarded to any Harvard build- reader contributions and subscriptions, advertising rev- enue, and a subvention from Harvard University. Its edi- as looking like a very nice country club. ing since 1994, you need only look at most torial content is the responsibility of the editors. Periodi- However, Stern got it right when he ar- of the non-traditional buildings Harvard cals postage paid at Boston, Mass., and additional mailing o≠ices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Circulation gued for continuing Harvard’s venerable has chosen to construct since then— Department, Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cam- bridge, Mass. 02138-4037. Subscription rate $30 a year in red-brick-Georgian look. It is an impor- buildings that honor their context for the U.S. and possessions, $55 Canada and Mexico, $75 other tant marketing asset in a fiercely compet- most part only by opposing it. foreign. (Allow up to 10 weeks for first delivery.) Sub- John A. McMullen, M.B.A. ’71, J.D. ’73 scription orders and customer service inquiries should be itive era for students and ought to be per- sent to the Circulation Department, Harvard Magazine, 7 petuated. Burlington, Vt. Ware Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138-4037, or call 617- 495-5746 or 800-648-4499, or e-mail addresschanges@har- This is doubtless why Princeton Uni- vard.edu. Single copies $4.95, plus $2.50 for postage and The problem handling. Manuscript submissions are welcome, but we versity has taken a very di≠erent ap- with Harvard architecture cannot assume responsibility for safekeeping. Include proach. It has hired an award-winning ar- is Walter Gropius. Harvard brought him stamped, self-addressed envelope for manuscript re- turn. Persons wishing to reprint any portion of Harvard chitectural firm to lead the development over from Europe instead of hiring Amer- Magazine’s contents are required to write in advance for of a long-term plan for its campus. As a ica’s seminal architectural genius, Frank permission. Address inquiries to Catherine A. Chute, publisher, at the address given above. spokesman for the architectural firm said: Lloyd Wright. Gropius brought with him Copyright © 2007 Harvard Magazine Inc. “The University has adopted an approach a distorted vision of Wright’s modernism, 2 November - December 2007 MORE THAN 250 YEARS OF UNINTERRUPTED HISTORY… 1929. When the world’s first twin lens camera, the legendary Rolleiflex, was launched, Vacheron Constantin was 174 years old Collection Musée de la Photographie, Vevey Collection Musée de la Photographie, MALTE CHRONOGRAPH Caliber 1141 handwound mechanical movement. Column-wheel chronograph mechanism. Telemetric scale with 1-kilometer graduations and tachymetric scale; 30-minute totalizer. Manually engine-turned gold dial with applied hour markers and a subdial for the seconds. Diameter 41.5 mm. Sapphire-crystal caseback. Water-resistant to 30 meters (~100 feet). Standard buckle. White gold. ...DEDICATED TO PERFECTION 47120/000G-9098 What can we do about one based on pure geometry and technol- SO MANY PEOPLE slipping ogy which lacks the human factor and, consequently, is not organic. through the cracks of the Perhaps Harvard should first look at HEALTH INSURANCE system? whether continued growth is appropriate Publisher: Catherine A. Chute to the quality of education it wishes to Finance and Administrative Manager: provide. The Harvard College experience Irina Kuksin diminishes as the size of the class and Director of Circulation: Felecia Carter classes grows. Director of Marketing Great architecture must be organic, Cara Ferragamo Murray “Fill the GAPS.” namely it must grow in unity with its site, Director of Advertising —Sandy, Director, era, and environment. If it does that, style Robert D. Fitta Patient Access Programs becomes irrelevant and designs should Advertising Account Manager satisfy the neighbors as well as the client. Myha Nguyen William Allin Storrer ’58 Production/Design Associate Jennifer Beaumont Adjunct professor of architecture, Classified Advertising Manager University of Texas at Austin Elizabeth Connolly Frankfort, Mich. Circulation and Fundraising Manager: Lucia Whalen A WRITER’S PERFORMANCE Gift Processor: Sarha J. Caraballo I read with some astonishment the ma- Business Intern: Kathryn L. Koch jestically self-congratulatory piece by Stephen Greenblatt purporting to be IVY LEAGUE MAGAZINE NETWORK aboutIvY League writing (“Writing as Performance,” Tel. 617-496-7207 September-October, page 40). It is, I sup- Associate Publisher, Sales pose, endearing that so demanding and Lawrence J. Brittan, Tel. 631-754-4264 distinguished a critic and scholar could New York Advertising Sales find in his own practices useful instruc- Beth Bernstein, Tel. 908-654-5050 tion for others. But as we discover how Mary Anne MacLean, Tel. 631-367-1988 Tom Schreckinger, Tel. 212-327-4645 much he hated to give up working even Travel Advertising Sales for a day on his current project, the loss Northeast Media Inc., Tel. 203-255-8800 and recovery of Lucretius’s “great” philo- Detroit Advertising Sales sophical poem; as we learn why (he Media Performance Group thought) he didn’t get into Harvard Col- Tel. 248-960-9447 lege; as we are led through the opening Southwest Advertising Sales paragraphs of various of his articles to see Daniel Kellner, Tel. 972-529-9687 how e≠ective they can be; as we find that West Coast Advertising Sales he was asked to give the Adorno lectures Virtus Media Sales, Tel. 310-478-3833 West Coast Travel Advertising Sales in Germany after the “important” philos- The Holleran Group, Tel. 707-935-9296 opher; and as we share in his delight at the jolly bantering he enjoyed with Presi- Board of Incorporators dent Clinton regarding Macbeth, it is di∞- This magazine, at first called the Harvard Bulletin, was cult to avoid the impression that this founded in 1898. Its Board of Incorporators was char- piece is less about the craft of scholarly tered in 1924 and remains active in the magazine’s “SOMETIMES when people need governance. The membership is as follows: Stephen J. writing than an advertisement for the life, Bailey, AMP ’94; Je≠rey S. Behrens ’89, William I. Ben- their medicines most, they can’t nett ’62, M.D. ’69; John T. Bethell ’54; Peter K. Bol; Fox works, and achievements of Professor Butterfield ’61, A.M. ’64; Sewell Chan ’98, Jonathan S. pay for them. To people who are Greenblatt. Writing as performance to be Cohn ’91; Philip M. Cronin ’53, J.D. ’56; John de sure, but must all performance be so de- Cuevas ’52; Casimir de Rham ’46, J.D. ’49; James F. Dwinell III ’62; Anne Fadiman ’74; Benjamin M. eligible, we give GSK medicines pressingly narcissistic? Friedman ’66, Ph.D. ’71; Robert H. Giles, Nf ’66; Owen Michael Rosenthal ’58 Gingerich, Ph.D. ’62; James Glassman ’69; Adam K. for practically free. We believe it Goodheart ’92; Max Hall, Nf ’50; Philip C. Haughey Campbell professor of the humanities ’57, Brian R. Hecht ’92; Sarah Bla≠er Hrdy ’68, Ph.D.