Harvard Science Center Public Spaces Transformations and Teaching Labs

COMPLETION

2025 (Phase I Complete, Phase II in Construction)

This project is the latest of LWA’s interventions at the Harvard Science Center, which have spanned over two decades working with this midcentury landmark. This effort focuses on the transformation of public spaces, common areas, and corridors on levels 1 and 2 with the construction of new teaching labs, classrooms, and offices.

As Harvard’s first major facility dedicated to undergraduate science education, the building introduced a bold, modernist presence at the northern edge of Harvard Yard. Opened in 1973 and designed by Josep Lluis Sert, the Science Center is conceived as both a highly functional academic hub and a civic structure. It merged classrooms, laboratories, and lecture halls into a unified architectural statement rooted in modern materiality and structural expression and illuminated by generous daylight. Sert designed the Science Center as part of a larger campus plan- connecting Harvard Yard to the growing northern campus through a network of circulation paths. Inside the building, this idea took shape as a crossroad: two intersecting corridors at the center, intended for easy movement and encouraging interaction and a sense of academic community.

The goals of this phase of renovation were to 1) create an inviting, comfortable, and engaging entry and public experience of the building, and 2) reflect current pedagogy and student life which emphasize the social/study nature of learning, and the need for many places to study individually and in small groups outside of classroom and lab.

INHABITABLE CORRIDORS: FROM PATHWAYS TO PLACES

From the entry, a new wood-slat ceiling in the zone of the lecture halls introduces a calm, natural, and unifying quality to the visually busy space. A long laptop bar lines the edge of the atrium offering students a place to work. Along the east corridor of the first floor a new advising office suite surrounds an open student lounge and lab classroom, providing student services and a meeting place for exchange. On the second floor, the linear mezzanine corridor under a continuous skylight is expanded by introducing cantilevered balconies and recessed alcoves at intervals along its length to create social/study spaces outside the labs. The balconies projecting over the first floor corridor are lined with wood slats in a radius curve to meet the existing robust structure and are furnished with laptop counters and chairs. The corresponding alcoves are defined by a similar curved wood slat wall and ceiling and have informal seating and marker boards.

SCIENCE ON DISPLAY: OPENING THE BOX THROUGH TRANSPARENCY

The Science Center concealed much of its academic life behind walls. Labs and classrooms were introverted, with little visual connection to surrounding spaces or corridors. In this renovation, transparency was used a tool to shift that dynamic, allowing science to become visible, accessible, and part of the shared experience of the building. Glazing replaces solid partitions along major corridors, giving clear views into labs and classrooms. Select areas of translucency enable a level of privacy to be maintained and prevent distraction for classroom teaching. Fundamental to Sert’s original concept were the accents of bright red color contrasting with the grey tones of the building. The furnishings and felt graphic walls of this renovation in a new palette of bright colors extends and expands the spirit of the building.

This project is a close collaboration between LWA and ADP Architecture: LWA led all work in the public areas, common spaces, classrooms, and offices while ADP Architecture led the design and documentation for the laboratory portion of the project.