This is the brief about the Harvard graduate center, Massachusetts, New England by Sir Walter Gropius

1. HARVARD
GRADUATE CENTER
BY: Meghana.V
SEM: V

2. • LOCATION: Cambridge, Massachusetts, New England.
• CLIMATE: Humid continental climate.
• ARCHITECTURAL STYLE: Modern

3. • The Harvard Graduate Centre, also known as "the Gropius Complex" was commissioned of The
Architects Collaborative by Harvard University in 1948.
• The first modern building on the campus, it was also the first endorsement of the modern style
by a major university and was seen in the national and architectural presses as a turning point
in the acceptance of the aesthetic in the U.S.
• The Architects Collaborative (TAC), a modernist firm headed
by Walter Gropius and seven younger architects, was a bold
choice for the typically traditional university.
• The building was completed in 1950, and was one of the first
major projects in the Architects Collaborative office.
• In justifying the placement of these innovations at Harvard, Gropius reveals his passion, and
activism, for the acceptance of modernism on college campuses.

4. The site plan of The Harvard graduate
center.
One of the floor plans.

5. • It is a group of eight buildings arranged around small and large courtyards on the Oxbridge
pattern.
• Has a good community feel about it and is humanly scaled.
• Various building housed dormitories, common rooms, refectory and a lounge convertible into
a meeting hall for 250 people.
• The dormitory blocks are constructed in reinforced concrete and the community buildings in
steelwork.
• Horizontal emphasis which is balanced by verticals together with the rectangular windows
moving towards square and large areas of plain walls always well proportioned to create a
feeling of repose and simplicity.
• Materials used: concrete with brick exterior.

6. • It is a group of eight buildings arranged around small and large courtyards on the Oxbridge
pattern.
• Has a good community feel about it and is humanly scaled.
• Various building housed dormitories, common rooms, refectory and a lounge convertible into
a meeting hall for 250 people.
• The dormitory blocks are constructed in reinforced concrete and the community buildings in
steelwork.
• Horizontal emphasis which is balanced by verticals together with the rectangular windows
moving towards square and large areas of plain walls always well proportioned to create a
feeling of repose and simplicity.
• Materials used: concrete with brick exterior.