Harvard's Northwest Science Building

[briv]

Harvard is currently in the process of adding a bunch of notable buildings to its campus. This one is going up next to their Museum of Natural History on Oxford St. It was designed by SOM's SF office.

More info can be found on Harvard's NW Building page HERE

 

[kz1000ps]

5/1/07.. this is one serpentine building

 

[ablarc]

Whether it's Harvard or a state university, the outer reaches of campus (science buildings) look the same: architecturally undistinguished.

 

[snarl71]

Somewhat close to the Oxford Street building, the Law School (where I work) is preparing to construct a building on Mass Ave between Jarvis and Everett Streets. It will replace 4 existing buildings: an ugly above-ground garage, an old brick dorm, and two victorian houses (which will be lifted and relocated a few blocks away onto additional Harvard-owned property).

The new building will be 250,000 square feet and will place parking underground. It is expected to be complete by summer 2011.

Here's my attempt at linking to the article (with a bad colorless photo...previous renderings showed a bit more detail):


http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/today/HLT_april07.pdf

 

[chumbolly]

^ That's terrific news about the new law school building, and I like the design--it should blend in well. A.M. Stern's last Harvard building turned out very nicely. Next, Harvard should pancake that old motel that it turned into a dorm a couple blocks up Mass. Ave.

 

[Joe_Schmoe]

That stretch of Mass Ave is really quite great, (except for that 1960s style motel on stilts) and it looks like this will contribute nicely.

 

[JoeGallows]

There's a nice aerial rendering in this article:

http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/010796.html

 

[justin]

Anything that beefs up Mass Ave street wall is good news. More residential development on this scale along Mass Ave is just what's needed to make it into a great urban boulevard. The Victorians should be banished to the side streets.

I'm not swooning over the design, but nor am I puking, so it must be pretty good. HLS's Hauser Hall is one of the few intelligent and well-executed PoMo buildings in Boston. Here's hoping this follows in its footsteps.

justin

 

[statler]

HLS's Hauser Hall is one of the few intelligent and well-executed PoMo buildings in Boston. Here's hoping this follows in its footsteps.

justin

Question: I'm still having trouble with a visual definition of PoMo. Is this considered PoMO?

I thought PoMo was tacking silly architectural elements like columns and arches onto mostly Modern buildings. or is that just bad PoMo?

 

[snarl71]

Actually, that "strip motel (now dorm) on stilts" up the street on Mass Ave is where the two victorian houses are being moved. Unfortunately, the dorm is staying...but the two houses should at least block the view when they replace part of the parking lot in front of the building.

I heard they may tear down a tiny portion of the dorm-on-stilts to fit the victorian houses - but the bulk of it will remain.

I think the houses will look quite nice there. At that very intersection there already exists a beautiful house occupied by Lesley University. Across the street is yet another, even more beautiful, red house. Add these two beauties to the block and it should look quite nice.

Work is set to begin demolishing the old parking garage (at Mass Ave/Everett Street) in the next month.

 

[Joe_Schmoe]

Great! If they move the Victorian houses in front of the motel on stilts and block the view of it, it will really make this stretch of Mass Ave nice. Getting rid of the parking garage is a bonus; lets hope Stern comes through, but I like his stuff so I'm optimistic.

 

[Beton Brut]

HLS's Hauser Hall is one of the few intelligent and well-executed PoMo buildings in Boston. Here's hoping this follows in its footsteps.

justin

Is Hauser PoMo or Faux-Stanford White? In any event, it's phony (regardless of the craftsmanship) and it makes me sad...

Question: I'm still having trouble with a visual definition of PoMo. Is this considered PoMo?

I thought PoMo was tacking silly architectural elements like columns and arches onto mostly Modern buildings. or is that just bad PoMo?

Not an easy question, statler...It has all the elements of the most humanistic brand of mid-century Modernism...Reminds me a bit of A. Quincy Jones or Albert Frey's work in Southern California...Also maybe a bit of Eero Saarinen...Call it NeMo (NeoModern)...In any event, I love it!

Good PoMo = NikeTown
Bad PoMo = 500 Boylston St.

On Stern's Law School building: it looks like H.H. Richardson (the Styrian arches) vs. Gordon Bunshaft (the glass curtain wall, facing the courtyard)...Like Lou Reed said, what good is bacon & ice cream...

 

[ablarc]

Anything that beefs up Mass Ave street wall is good news. More residential development on this scale along Mass Ave is just what's needed to make it into a great urban boulevard. The Victorians should be banished to the side streets.

Agreed. About eight stories would be nice.

Parisian.

I'm not swooning over the design, but nor am I puking, so it must be pretty good.

Most Stern buildings are well-mannered and presentable.

 

[czsz]

Beton Brut, Hauser is more Nike Town than any of the other buildings you mentioned. It's redbrick, cubic and has a rounded portal entrance, but those are the only real nods to tradition. It's a very contemporary yet well-scaled project.

I added a thread on the Law School project for those of you who are curious (it's not really eight stories or Parisian):

http://architecturalboston.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=792

 

[singbat]

Beton Brut, Hauser is more Nike Town than any of the other buildings you mentioned. It's redbrick, cubic and has a rounded portal entrance, but those are the only real nods to tradition. It's a very contemporary yet well-scaled project.

I added a thread on the Law School project for those of you who are curious (it's not really eight stories or Parisian):

http://architecturalboston.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=792

Hauser Hall:

I'm not a big fan of this building, but I can't easily say why -- especially not when I'm thinking of the other post-50s HU buildings. Probably has something to do with the way it hunkers down like it's hiding behind its arch. (you have to take that comment in the context of the long view down the library facade).

 

[ablarc]

Hauser Hall:

By the guys who designed Boston City Hall. ^

Shucked their Modernism.

But still kinda cutting-edge.

 

[Beton Brut]

Beton Brut, Hauser is more Nike Town than any of the other buildings you mentioned. It's redbrick, cubic and has a rounded portal entrance, but those are the only real nods to tradition. It's a very contemporary yet well-scaled project.

I'm slipping -- I intended to direct my vitriol at Stern's Spangler Center at the Business School:

Faux Stanford White to be sure -- I think I'm gonna be sick!

Hauser isn't so awful (though I've never been inside)...It does look like a silly-putty picture of Wright's Arthur Heurtley House (my very favorite Prairie House):

Hauser seems to have been baked in the same kiln of contextualism as the Brooke Courthouse in Boston, though unlike the Brooke, its design owes nothing to Hitler's Germany...

 

[kz1000ps]

unlike the Brooke, its design owes nothing to Hitler's Germany...

Could you elaborate? What about the Brooke's design says fascist architecture? I understand that a lot of stripped down classicism is associated with that political ideology (which I find misguided), but what specifically are you referring to?

EDIT: and about the Spangler Center - why is it so horrible? I was recently around it up close and I find it a perfectly acceptable building working within the Georgian language, especially considering the age in which it was built.

 

[Beton Brut]

Could you elaborate? What about the Brooke's design says fascist architecture? I understand that a lot of stripped down classicism is associated with that political ideology (which I find misguided), but what specifically are you referring to?

The building bears a strong resemblance to Albert Speer's work -- I can post some pix if you want...Ablarc did a monster-post about it a couple of years ago on the "old" old forum (many a controversial diatribe ensued)...Next to Rudolph's Hurley, the Brooke looks phony -- like a Chinette paper plate with a Wedgwood pattern printed on it next to rough, handmade pottery...I just don't like it...

EDIT: and about the Spangler Center - why is it so horrible? I was recently around it up close and I find it a perfectly acceptable building working within the Georgian language, especially considering the age in which it was built.

It was built in 2002 -- to me, it's the institutional equivalent of a McMansion. Like the Hotel Commonwealth with a big budget. Rubbish!

 

[czsz]

The towers on Boylston to the east of Trinity Church are the institutional embodiments of McMansions. The Spangler deserves a little more respect. Unoriginal? Sure. But it's tastefully restrained within its historicist idiom.

How to explain the similarities between the Brooke and the work of Speer? I would say stylized classicism strips the humanizing modulation of sculpture (between the vast scale of such buildings and people), leaving little more than awesome yet ominous monumentality. There is nothing to make the individual feel he/she is part of such a structure, merely the suggestion that he/she is little in comparison with it.