Local Architects Select: Best of Boston

Photo courtesy Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, Architecture & Engineering

Three of our favorite buildings in the area are on the campus of the Harvard Business School on the Boston side of the Charles River, and, in fact, each of the three is within close sight of the other two. What is also coincidently wonderful is that the first two buildings, a gym and a chapel, represent recent construction of the unrealized program components from the original 1925 McKim, Mead & White master plan, while the third, an instructional facility, finally completes the characteristically delightful radial geometry of open spaces inherent in the formal arrangement of the academic core—all reinforcing the intrinsic organismic nature of campuses and campus planning. In chronological order of their appearance:

• Shad Hall, 1988, Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood Architects, is the Business School’s athletic and fitness center. Stately, confident, but inventive, this clearly modern building draws inspiration from the palette, language, and typology of forms of the original plan, particularly in resolving the challenges of the inherent bulkiness of the gym and the successful mediation of scale between the adjacent residence halls and the Harvard Stadium across the street. As well as the heart and soul of the facility, the sky-lit interior atrium is also a small architectural gem. With an admitted bias from this author, the 20-year-old edifice demurely asserts a timeless dignity.

• Just beyond the adjacent tennis courts sits the crisp platonic ensemble of the Class of 1959 Chapel, 1992, by Moshe Safde Associates, which, perhaps by virtue of its unique spiritual and meditative function on the B School campus, sets up a vividly stark but ultimately comfortable contrast to the adjacent Neo-Georgian context (much like what Boullee might have inserted into the Marais district in Paris) with a solid, copper-clad cylinder of the sanctuary intersecting the glazed pyramid of a tiered water garden. The former being a deliciously tuned acoustical chamber and the latter a radiantly warm and soothing asylum from harsh New England winters, if not the pressures of the Business School regimen. The Constructivist timepiece marks the entrance in the tradition of a diminutive campanile.

• The least assuming of the bunch but certainly the most programmatically representative of the School’s mission is Hawes Hall, 2003, by Einhorn Yaffee Prescott, an elegantly understated classroom addition, discretely acknowledging the Business School s architectural legacy. But more than a sophisticated branding opportunity of bricks and mortar, Hawes incorporates the most recent iteration of the universally accepted and exported instructional typology: the Case Method Classroom—with the current model focusing on the exacting pedagogical requirements which called for the promotion of intimacy and dynamic interaction, while incorporating technology criteria early in the programming/planning process (a separate Front of the Room Committee was formed to explore the challenges of an emerging multiple-media teaching format). Warm, inviting, but functional and fully loaded, these classrooms and ample breakout spaces are working models of ideal learning environments.

Photos © Lucy Chen

Photo courtesy of Margulies & Associates

The Federal Reserve Building [designed by The Stubbin Associates] stands out against the sky. I can see it from my desk and it’s fascinating to watch the colors changing during the day due to the aluminum skin.

 

 

 

Photo courtesy Margulies & Associates

The Boston Public Library [Editor’s note: A second vote!], designed by Charles Follen McKim, is a beautiful adaptation of an Italian palaz­zo. The courtyard is an amazing respite from the urban surroundings. The interior is filled with significant works of art.

If you like steak, you have to go to Flemings in Park Square or Ruth’s Chris Steak House—it’s in the Old City Hall (the first historic rehab in Boston). [Editor’s Note: The rehab was designed by Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc.]

Photo courtesy Maryann Thompson Architects Inc.

Here are three projects which are not to be missed when architects come to Boston for the Convention:

• The Carpenter Center by Le Corbusier is at 24 Quincy Street, on the edge of the Harvard Campus [in Cambridge]. This is Le Corbusier’s only North American building, and it is a sculptural tour de force. The building’s curved forms interweave with the columnar grid of concrete pilotis, creating stunning ambiguity between interior and exterior spaces. A curved ramp passes through the body of the building, which means you can see much of the building even when it’s not open. It’s truly stunning.

• The Kresge Chapel at MIT by Eero Saarinen [Editor’s Note: A second vote for this building!], at 77 Massachusetts Ave. on the MIT Campus, is a subtle building which uses light as a medium to create emotional resonance. A moat surrounds the building, and bounces a diffused yet animated light into the dark interior through glazing on the floor. Light from a skylight over the altar falls on a fragmented and specular golden screen, which hovers mysteriously. One word of advice: It is best enjoyed on a sunlit day!

• The Leventritt Flowering Shrub and Vine Collection at the Arnold Arboretum is also one not to be missed. Designed by Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architects and Maryann Thompson Architects, Arnold Arboretum is at 125 Arborway in Boston. It is part of [Frederick Law] Olmsted's “Emerald Necklace” and is a beautiful and inspiring place of repose in the city. The collection of flowering vines is international, and much will be in bloom in May. The vines weave through elegantly detailed trellis structures and a pavilion structure which, with the beds, creates an unfolding narrative based on the spatial principles of hide and reveal.

My restaurant recommendation is simple: Rialto at the Charles Hotel, One Bennett Street in Cambridge, architecture and interiors by Maryann Thompson Architects. Fantastic Italian cuisine by inspired chef Jody Adams, served in a beautiful and sensuous restaurant—perfect for a romantic evening. Flowing curtains in the subtle colors of the sycamore trees which line the Charles River help.

Photos © Peter Vanderwarker

 

 

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