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TYPE: Article CC:CCL

JOURNAL TITLE: Harvard magazine

USER JOURNAL TITLE: Harvard magazine

ARTICLE TITLE: There's More Than One Way to Build a Building

ARTICLE AUTHOR: Brett Donham

VOLUME: 76

ISSUE: 5

MONTH: January

YEAR: 1974

PAGES: 57-60

ISSN: 0095-2427

OCLC #:

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The excavation above is for Harvard's new underground library. Design and construction time: 43 months. Canaday Hall,
abuilding at right, exemplifies the "systems" approach. Foundations were poured before other aspects of the design were
settled. Design and construction time: 18 months.

There's more than one way to build a building

One way is traditional, sedate, well-mannered.
The other is a roller coaster ride.

by Brett Donham
A dormitory and a library are under con­ a 43-month design and construction local wags liked to say the building would
struction in Harvard Yard, and sidewalk period for the Library. Even more extra­ be up before the drawings were done. Of
superintendents are marveling at the ordinary, Canaday Hall was two months a great deal more interest is the so-called
difference in speed with which each goes into construction and the foundations systems approach being taken to
forward. Canaday Hall will take thirteen were up and level with the ground before Canaday Hall, which involves the Univer­
months to build; the Pusey Library, 22 the Harvard Corporation (the Universi­ sity in a design process radically, and
months. From the time the architect for ty's senior governing board) had given its sometimes disturbingly, different from
Canaday Hall was retained until the formal approval of the design. anything it is used to.
building is ready to be occupied, only The difference in size and complexity The Pusey Library is proceeding in the
eighteen months will pass, as opposed to of the two buildings does not alone ac­ way that is traditional for all kinds of
count for the remarkable difference in buildings-in carefully defined stages.
Brett Donham graduated from Harvard
design and construction time. Canaday All goes forward in a strictly sequential
College in 1960 and received the Master
of Architecture degree from the Gradu­ Hall is being "fast-tracked"-hurried manner. The architect first produces a
ate School of Design in 1964. He heads along-doubtless for good, practical preliminary design, figuratively wraps it
his own architectural firm in Boston, reasons. Fast-tracking is nothing new, with a ribbon, and presents it to the
lives in Cambridge, and walks often even at Harvard; the early stages of Holy­ client -for approval. Then comes design
through Harvard Yard. oke Center were built so quickly that development, wrapping with ribbon, and

JANUARY 1974 57
another approval. Then construction
-
�·-
drawings and specifications, more rib­ ' ---.
bon, another approval. Then the project .!,,
goes out for bids, a contractor is selected,
and he is wrapped up with a contract.
Only then does construction begin. - ....,

v•if!!/7)
An architect working in the traditional
way designs a completed thing and pre­

�1-1/J: -­ �
sents it to his client for approval. The

<J�lJJj
client turns thumbs up or thumbs down.
To guard against the latter, the archi­
tect's design may come with a sales pitch.
If the client doesn't like what the archi­ I

tect has done, he can of course reject it,

���� z:
but he is more apt to compromise. If he
wants no part of what his architect pro­
poses, he must reject a completed design � �ij,/7�
that took many hours to prepare and
would take many more to redo.
The systems approach to designing a
building takes as its goal an attempt to
relate the client's needs-his goals, the
restrictions of the building site, his bud­
get-and to develop for the client a num­ �•t
ber of alternatives and options at the very j' tS
beginning of the design process. Most
important, the client will be a part of the - � • llfi:::::.
design process all along the line, instead Shaded areas show sites of Canaday Hall (top of map, at left below) and Pusey
of only at a few landmark points. Library (bottom, right) within the Harvard Yard.
The systems approach does not require
that each phase of design and construc­
tion be completed before the next begins.
Neither, of course, does it demand fast­
tracking. But once certain parameters
are set, a number of activities can pro­
ceed simultaneously and relatively inde­
pendently of one another. That is why it
was reasonable from a design point of
view to pour the foundations of Canaday
Hall before other parts of the structure
were designed. Similarly, the concrete­
block walls of Canaday Hall might very
well have risen before the architect and
his client had decided what material they and protected by the Cambridge Histori­ aligned formally along their longer axes
would use to face the walls. As it hap­ cal Commission, the Yard is the heart of around rectangular courts. The buildings
pens, brick was a Harvard requirement the oldest university in the United States. and the courts are organized almost
right from the start. The kind of brick In addition to the normal traffic of stu­ symmetrically along various axes." Can­
and mortar to be used, however, was not dents, faculty, and townspeople, it is aday Hall's list of requirements echoed
selected until well along in the construc­ visited by thousands of tourists a year. these phrases and went on to state Har­
tion process. When the need for a new library and a vard's "national responsibility to con­
The Pusey Library is a largely under­ new dormitory was clear, Harvard pre­ serve the traditional environment of the
ground structure that will connect Lam­ pared very extensive statements of re­ Yard." The list called for "attempts to
ont, Houghton, and Widener Libraries. quirements for each building. Sites were relate potential edges of a new structure
Canaday Hall is a dormitory that will selected after studies by the Planning with those of adjacent existing build­
occupy the site of the former Hunt Hall Office and outside consultants. The list ings" and requested that "new construc­
behind Memorial Church. They are the of requirements for the Pusey Library tion...should resolve these spacial prob­
first buildings constructed in the Yard in stated that "new construction shall... lems in a manner...compatible with the
24 years, and unless Harvard regresses to conserve the established characteristics Yard but also with the street and pedes­
an underground campus-for practical and the environmental principles of the trian space to the north."
as well as symbolic reasons-they may area." The established characteristics The two architects who were eventually
well be the last. were carefully spelled out: "The entire selected shared these assumptions about
Any architect designing a building in Yard is mainly intended to be used by what sites in Harvard Yard offered and
Harvard Yard does so with trepidation. pedestrians...the [Yard's] buildings are demanded. The architects for Canaday
Filled with National Historic Land­ mostly constructed of brick or stone. The Hall, Ezra Ehrenkrantz and Associates,
marks, listed in the National Register, buildings are rectangular in plan and are Inc., were particularly concerned about
58 HARV ARD MAGAZINE
shaping outdoor spaces to recall the day Hall has had greater emotional sig­ tions. When Bok assumed office in July
spaces between other buildings in the nificance for them. This building is en­ 1971, the commitment to the Library was
Yard. They carefully studied the spaces tirely the creation of their administra­ established and there was no turning
between the outer ring of dormitories tion. Hunt Hall, on the site of the new back. Late that _summer detailed plan­
(Mower, Lionel, Straus, Wigglesworth) dormitory, had been slated for demoli­ ning commenced. The architect's recom­
and the inner grouping (Stoughton, Hol­ tion for about ten years, and the Plan­ mendations were accepted in early 1972.
lis, Matthews, Grays). Corner spaces ning Office had considered what might Design ofthe building itself began short­
were analyzed as weH as the relationship replace it, but the impetus for actual ly after that. The final architect was
between the widths ofopen areas and the demo!jtion and the decision to erect a selected by a routine path, after inter­
heights of surrounding buildings. The new structure issued entirely from the views conducted by the Planning Office.
architects tried to maintain those same B()k presidency. (The Harvard Corporation still exercises
proportional relationships in their plans President Bok's decision to increase ·the right to approve all such decisions.)
for Canaday Hall. the enrollment of women was the imme­ Harvard selected Hugh A. Stubbins and
Hugh Stubbins and Associates, the diate cause. Construction of a new fresh­ Associates largely because of the firm's
architects for the Pusey Library, formed man dormitory in the Yard became experience in designing the Medical
different goals, since their building was possible when a donor, Ward Canaday, School's Countway Library, a facility
to be underground. Their chief intent of the Harvard Class of '07, appeared in that has received great praise, particular­
was, in their spokesman's words, to the winter of 1972-73. At that point, the ly from its staff.
"violate the Yard as little as a building administration decided to push forward After Harvard selected the architects,
this size can." A practical, if not noble, with plans as rapidly as possible to have plans for both buildings continued to
aspiration. The space between Lamont, the dormitory ready for occupancy by proceed in dramatically different ways.
Houghton, and the former President's September 1974. That meant there The conventional approach, which
House was to be retained, enlarged, and would be a very short time for design and guided the Pusey Library, is the one gen­
no longer concealed from the Tercenten­ construction. erally preferred by architects because, if
erary Theater. The pedestrian routes At the same time, President Bok had they are successful in selling the result to
across the site were to be recognized and been discussing the Graduate School of the client, it affords them a better chance
incorporated into the scheme. Design with various people outside of of controlling the design and earning
At first, the University administration Harvard. He was particularly impressed their place in history. The systems ap­
assisted both architects in the same way. in these talks by Ezra Ehrenkrantz. proach that guided the development of
When the architects and the Harvard Ehrenkranz is probably the profession's Canaday Hall, on the other hand, is one
Planning Office could not resolve con­ leading exponent of the application of that makes it difficult for the architect to
flicts between the nature of each site and systems thinking to architecture. His control the building's final shape be­
plans for its use, President Derek C. Bok firm's systems orientation and their abili­ cause the client becomes an intimate
resolved them. He participated directly ty, not commonly held among architects, participant in the design process. Toge­
in the design process, which was an inno­ to estimate costs accurately and to man­ ther, client and architect clarify the cli­
vation in itself. (On one occasion he age the construction of a project, made ent's priorities and develop options to
brought the University's General Coun­ him seem the logical choice as Canaday meet these priorities. Trade-offs come
sel, Daniel Steiner, to a planning session, Hall's architect, considering the tight early and are an integral part of the
remarking that he needed company so timetable. His firm was retained in design process.
the architects wouldn't gang up on him.) March 1973, just as the Planning Office's Obviously, the systems approach is
Canaday Hall as initially conceived list of requirements for the site was com­ hard on the client. He has to know what
was too large. The number of students pleted. Normally, Harvard hires an he wants. There is no time for consensus
slated to live in it forced the design of a architect after deliberately considering a to emerge slowly from the woodwork.
building that crowded the site. In mid­ variety of candidates, sifting through a The client's employees must have exper­
May, less than three months before con­ library ofresumes, and conducting inter­ tise in the areas of costs, finance, and
struction started, Bok stepped in and views. In the case of Canaday Hall, a maintenance. They must bring their
reduced the number of occupants from "strong suggestion" was made by the knowledge to bear rapidly on a problem,
220 to 208, thereby dropping the number administration, and the architects began reach decisions quickly, and take respon­
of required square feet from 69,000 to work before their credentials had been sibility for them. One participant in the
57,000. Plans for Pusey Library under­ completely investigated by the Planning planning for Canaday Hall compared the
went similar direction when the library Office. experience to "being on a roller coaster
staff and their advocates pied for as How has the course of the Pusey Li­ ride." In short, the systems approach
much access to light, view, sun, and out­ brary been different? First of all, the requires a new kind of client.
side exposure as possible. These pleas planning originated during the Pusey Ordinarily, Harvard is a dismayingly
threatened to push the building out of years. The need for more library space multi-headed client for any architect.
the ground, and, indeed, it was at one became clear in the mid-1960's. The The Planning Office acts as a mediator
time planned as a four-storey, above­ Planning Office started considering vari­ and a coordinator among the Universi­
ground structure. Bok again had to take ous site possibilities as well as developing ty's various parts. In the case of the
a strong hand. On behalf of the Yard, he a list of requirements and a project bud­ Pusey Library, it dealt with various re­
kept the building largely underground get by the late 1960's. A search for the presentatives ofthe Harvard Library Sys­
and as little exposed as possible. necessary $8 million began in 1968. In tem, the Associate Dean ofthe Faculty of
While Bok, financial vice president mid-1971 Harvard held interviews to Arts and Sciences, representatives of
Hale Champion, and Stephen Hall, vice select an architect for the first phase--to Buildings and Grounds, the Board of
president for administration, took an draw up a detailed site analysis, a feasi­ Overseers (principally through their
active interest in both buildings, Cana- bility study, and a list of recommenda- library Visiting Committee), the Corpor-

JANUARY 1974 59
ation, the president and his immediate work. In many ways, these steps demon­ buildings, Emerson and the end of Sever,
staff, and the architect. It is the Planning strate the new commitment to efficiency will help shape the space. Even the raised
Office, traditionally, that orchestrates and lower costs. It is a commitment that grade of the new court, because it literal­
the building process and steers the de­ leaves some panting in the rear. "I hope ly introduces a new dimension to the
sign, as it unfolds, through various stages the fast track approach of Canaday Hall entrance facing the main space of the
of approvals. Increasingly, however, it doesn't happen too often," says the head Yard, will be good. However, viewed
appears that the president's office will of the Planning Office. "It does not allow from the opposite direction, toward La­
step in to guide the process. enough time for review and no time for mont, the new court will not be such a
When Bok came to office in July 1971, retrospection. On the other hand, I success. The large raised grade, with its
the commitment to the Library was es­ doubt whether another_ year of time­ ambiguous role as both building and
tablished and there was no turning back. although it would have made things eas­ landscape, will be unsettling and out of
The project continued to follow the con­ ier for everyone-would have secured a place. However, it is not clear what other
ventional sequential process of design better building for Harvard." solution could have produced the ameni­
and approvals. In March 1973 bids were Clearly, Harvard's bureaucracy, and ties that the users of the building de­
taken for site excavation and site utili­ especially the Planning Office, is more manded.
ties. In August the building itself went comfortable with the traditional way of Rising in a forgotten and strangely
out to bids. Award of the construction putting up a building. Among other rea­ shaped corner of the Yard, Canaday Hall
contract was made in November 1973, sons, the traditional way enables them to will also be judged by how well it creates
and occupancy is expected in April 1975. exert more control over architectural a series of spaces that have life and con­
The timetable for Canaday Hall is con­ work in the face of a new administration nection with the rest of the Yard. The
siderably shorter. Foundation drawings with new ways of doing business. construction of the traffic underpass and
and contractor bidding began in early Hale Champion speaks of Harvard the closing of the gate that faced the fire
July 1973, two months before the build­ having a "management capability that it station robbed life from the site of the
ing's final design was complete. A build­ did not have before." Not surprisingly, new dormitory. To the extent that Cana­
ing contractor was selected, and a target he wants to exercise that capability. Like day Hall can reunite the site with the rest
cost for the building was set, at the time the Planning Office, he feels that "by of the Yard, it will be considered a suc­
construction drawings were started in fast-tracking Canaday Hall we lost noth­ cess.
mid-July. The building itself was well ing. Added time would have been only . Inside the buildings will be two four­
under construction before final approval added worrying time," not least of all, we person suites per floor. The suites may be
of the design was given. Construction can assume, for the faculty, which some­ adapted easily to allow for a triple and a
was four months along before final speci­ times hesitates to reach decisions. The single. The suites have through- or two­
fications were complete. This process question remains, will the administration way exposure, adding a valuable dimen­
saved a minimum of seven months. An now return to business as usual in the sion to living. Top floors have special
entire academic year will be gained if design of buildings? Hale Champion lofts and large skylights to help make the
construction is completed on time. Since thinks not: "We will do it again where it climb upstairs worthwhile. The buildings
construction costs continue to escalate is appropriate." have no internal supports; the only fixed
10-12 percent a year, money was also What quality of architecture has this elements are the exterior bearing walls,
saved. new process created? Can Harvard ever the staircases, and the toilets. Over the
What does the accelerated embryology be the type of client that evokes the very expected long life of the buildings,
of Canaday Hall reveal about Harvard best from architects? Answers to these changes and renovations can be easily
today? First, it illustrates that Harvard's questions can only come with time, as the arranged.
president wants a strong hand in shaping spaces inside and outside the two new My judgment is that, viewed from out­
the University's environment. Decisions buildings are experienced by their future side, Canaday Hall's relationship to the
about buildings tend to be in effect for a users. rest of the Yard will not be as successful.
hundred years or more. Few other ac­ Pusey Library will be judged by how The spaces among the units will be
tions of Harvard officials have as long­ well it unites the three other libraries it cramped, particularly near the rear of
lasting consequences. While on the one serves, and by how well it creates a work­ Memorial Church.
hand it seems entirely reasonable that ing environment for its everyday users. And Harvard will remain a difficult
the president should wish to make such But its outer shape will be judged even client of architects. Its large bureaucracy
important decisions, the question re­ more critically. How far will it succeed in and its desire to please many different
mains whether the president, who is not drawing the court formed by Lamont, parties do not provide the focus for great
expected to be trained in architecture Houghton, and the former President's work. The diffuseness of authority at
and design, is the person best able or House into relation with the rest of the Harvard, which fosters academic and
equipped to make them. Yard? In the past this court has been scholarly excellence, and which would
Canaday Hall announces that Har­ virtually shut off from the Yard. If the not endure in the face of anything short
vard's administration is eager to make its new court becomes one of. a series of of excellence, is less successful in de­
mark. Selection of a relatively unknown interrelated spaces and contributes in manding excellence in the University's
(in the East, at any rate) architect, out­ this way to the harmony of the Yard, the built environment, even with a decisive
side the normal channels, adoption of a building will be a success. president supported by an alert and effi­
schedule for design and construction that My preliminary judgment is that the cient staff. A great building is the work
many people would think crazy, and the Library will succeed at least halfway. both of architectural genius and a single­
use of unorthodox contracting tech­ When one looks from the new court to minded client. The two buildings now
niques without the usual guarantees, are the Tercentenary Theater, the space be­ taking shape in the Yard reveal how dif­
all steps that, at the very least, will alert tween Houghton and the former Presi­ ficult it is for a university to be that kind
people that a new administration is at dent's House will be clarified. Other of client. D
60 HARV ARD MAGAZINE