Smith Campus Center
Smith Campus Center | |
---|---|
José Luis Sert | |
Architecture firm | Sert, Jackson and Gourley[1] |
Harvard University's Smith Campus Center (formerly Holyoke Center) is a Brutalist administrative and service building located at Harvard Square (occupying the block bounded by Massachusetts Avenue, Dunster Street, Holyoke Street, and Mount Auburn Street) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, directly opposite the Wadsworth Gate to Harvard Yard.[1] It houses Harvard administrative offices, an infirmary of the University Health Services, and a retail/restaurant arcade.[1]
Design
Primarily designed by
After the first phase of construction in 1963, the Harvard Crimson cited a local joke: "The one nice feature about Holyoke Center is that it's the one place in Cambridge from which you can't see Holyoke Center". [4] Within a few years the building's novel design and technical features began to present numerous difficulties, which a Harvard official likened to "a five-car accident at an intersection. You just can't tell what caused it." [5] These included crumbling of exterior structural concrete and an inefficient three-pipe heating and cooling system.[5]
It was Harvard's first highrise building, and has been called a "gray elephant" for the color of its concrete facades.[6][7]
Artworks
From 1964 to 1979, the penthouse dining room was decorated with five large paintings installed by
Renaming and renovation
Originally known as Holyoke Center, in 2013 it was renamed the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center.[13] Over the next several years, its underwent extensive renovation to create gathering, lounge, and study spaces, and space for exhibitions, events, and performances, after reopening in 2018.[14]
References
- ^ a b c "Holyoke Center, Harvard University". DOCOMOMO US.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-04-21. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Beth Andrea Madelbaum and Marjorie Kitchen FitzSimmons, "Edward Waldo Forbes: City Planner" in Edward Waldo Forbes: Yankee Visionary, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA 1971, pp88
- ^ "Dean Sert's Buildings". Harvard Crimson. October 8, 1963.
- ^ a b Georges, Christopher J. (November 2, 1983). "Holyoke Center Crumbles". Harvard Crimson.
- ^ Dean, Anrea O. (January 1979). "Evaluation: 'Gray elephant' in Harvard Square: Holyoke Center, most successful of the university's first-generation highrises". AIA Journal. 68 (1): 48–51.
- ^ Cromie, William (November 19, 1988). "UHS Celebrates A Century". Harvard Gazette.
- ^ Sheets, Hilarie M. (23 October 2014). "A Return for Rothko's Harvard Murals". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2015-06-11. Retrieved 2016-07-15.
- ^ "Exhibitions, Mark Rothko's Harvard Murals". Harvard Art Museums. Archived from the original on 2016-07-16. Retrieved 2016-07-15.
- ^ Stenger, J., Khandekar, N., Raskar, R., Cuellar, S., Mohan, A. and Gschwind, R., ‘Conservation of a room: a treatment proposal for Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals,’ Studies in Conservation, 61(6), 2016, 348–361
- ^ Stenger, J., Khandekar, N., Wilker, A., Kallsen, K., Kirby, D.P. and Eremin, K., ‘The making of Mark Rothko’s Harvard Murals,’ Studies in Conservation, 61(6), 2016, 331–347.
- ^ "Scenes from Harvard's new Smith Campus Center". 25 September 2018. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
- ^ "Scenes from Harvard's new Smith Campus Center". Harvard Gazette. 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2022-03-18.