Harvard Business School's Tata Hall | Allston

Seriously. HBS over the last 15 years has veered toward a hideous hodgepodge of ill-advised, contemporary buildings better fit for a suburban highway. The school's administration should consciously spurn whatever fads are bubbling up at the GSD and return to the classic Georgian/brick coherence and urbanity of the original campus and RAM Stern's additions to it. Otherwise HBS will continue in its march toward the aesthetic of Brandeis or U-Mass Boston.
 
It's a tough balance, Itchy. BC gets panned for doing their faux-gothic stuff, and rightly so. I'm not sure HBS would do any better trying to extend Harvard Yard across the river.

Brandeis often gets laughed at for following every new trend. However, they get some standout buildings out of it. The Shapiro Center is fantastic, as are some of the newer dorms and science buildings. Eventually buildings like these will replace all the crumbling cinderblock turds that comprise so much of the campus.

(Not sure what my point was...)

Edit: AHA! My point. I think Tata Hall is awful not because it's different, but because it's so closed off and unengaging. Every side looks like its back-side, much like a Route 128 office park behemoth. You can look at the Genzyme buildings nearby to see how awesome a contemporary addition can be when done in an engaging and interesting way.
 
Kresge, which is front of Tata, is being demolished as we speak. Kresge will be replaced by Chao, which is neo neo-Georgian, and I guess the theory is that Chao will be the front door of Tata.

I think a design consideration/constraint for Tata was the Soldiers Field residences to its immediate south. Without those, I believe Tata would look quite different.

And, after all, it is basically a residence hall, with nearly 180 suites.

Tata, who paid for most of it, and who the building was named after, is a Cornell trained architect, and still living.
 
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