People joke about the Boston accent, made famous by the Wahlberg brothers, reruns of Cheers on TV and the MIT genius janitor in Good Will Hunting. There’s Boston chowder, and Boston Red Sox and their pretty extreme weather (Massachusetts has two season: Winter and construction). What is never mocked is Harvard; the epitome of elite education.

The prestige has not come overnight, the first buildings date back to the 1600s – at which point not even the cows had started grazing over the fields of what would become Sydney University.

The centuries have allowed a roll call of prestigious alumni, some household names such as John F Kennedy, Barack Obama and Bill Gates. There are many, many more not immediately recognizable names and faces who have gone on to make a difference in the world, including 161 Nobel Prize winners.

For the class of 2026 there have been 40,000 applicants – less than 5 percent were accepted, selected from over 60 countries. It is elite, selective and aspirational and it never crossed my mind that in the American summer of 2022 I would be walking across campus with my son, back to his dorm on the Harvard Business School campus, in a state of architectural and maternal joy.

Harvard is spread over several campuses, which add up to an institution of 600 buildings spread over 2,000 hectares in the state of Massachusetts. The HBS campus is relatively new, having been established in 1908, though it was designed to blend seamlessly with the style and effect of Harvard Yard, a mere 15-minute walk away over the Charles River. It feels elegantly aged. The concept of Georgian village squares lined with buildings made of irregular, small red bricks, with stark white detailing has been successfully repeated across most of the Boston sites.

Verdant lawns with immaculately manicured gardens under giant shade trees deliver surrounding dorms and libraries at HBS picture perfect outlooks – and proffers the idea of serendipitous meetups as students crisscross the grounds, often stopping to sit and chat in vibrant crimson Adirondack lawn chairs, or inside the astutely elegant glass Schwartz Pavilion that appears to have slid into position under the boughs of the common’s trees.

When the weather turns brutal, and it does, the foot traffic moves underground to a series of tunnels that connect most buildings, sharing space with the highly efficient steam heating system that runs for four kilometres both underground, and over the Charles River.

This interaction of people in transit as it were, is purposeful in its design. This is more than collegiate thinking; this is the heart of the Harvard ethos, to create spaces that encourage illuminating and vigorous discourse. It was Harvard that was the first college to use the ‘case method’ of learning – and the classrooms at HBS, shaped more like amphitheatres, have been designed around this energetic and participant driven concept.

Australian MBA student Jess Carey says the architecture of the classroom, combined with the case method, invites an entirely new way of learning.

“Being almost in the round, we (the students) are facing each other - not sitting facing a lecturer. Here you are put in a more dynamic position, you can be called on at any time. You interact with other students you are facing. It is exciting. In the older style lecture situations, it is far more passive. You sit facing forward, your interaction with the lecturer or other students is very limited,” says Carey.

But in between lectures students and professors walk or cycle between buildings that reek of history, of past scholarship and of extraordinary and rare opportunity. Along with that comes a burden of responsibility – don’t waste time, don’t fail, be as good as all those that came before. From the Baker Bloomberg Library at HBS, to the majestic steps of Harvard Yard’s Widener library, the message is clear; don’t blow this. So, no pressure then.

“I had never seen the campus before I arrived - I’d never once looked,” says Carey, who had no preconceived ideas of how the atmosphere would, if at all, influence his years of study in Boston, so it was surprising for him when the surroundings had such an impact.

“Absolutely. I think it’s really hard to ignore the sense of history in the buildings and the gardens - you do think about the different minds that have been here, the leaders who have walked the grounds and studied here - it does inspire you,” says Carey. A beat later he adds “It’s also daunting.”

The pressure for Harvard students to perform, to excel, to achieve is unrelenting. So, it is not surprising that many who experience the campus put the landscape architecture as pivotal to their success here. Finding organic peace in a lifestyle that races against the clock, is treasured.

“My favourite space is in front of my old dorm, at Hamilton Hall. It was and is so peaceful, the gardens and trees around the square are so beautiful. It offers a perfect place for respite, and that is so important.”

It is of course an eye watering expense to maintain buildings that are centuries old, such as the Hogwarts reminiscent, Victorian Gothic Memorial Hall (completed in 1878), with its magnificent transept stained glass and imposing timber trusses. It is not a house of worship as one might imagine, but rather three distinct areas; including the Annanberg dining hall (bring on the owls) and the Globe inspired Sanders Theatre where the likes of Gorbachev, Churchill and Martin Luther King have taken to the lectern. Those with a penchant for online learning may come across lecture series recorded in this rather dynamic space, it is a theatre of education.

Repairs of historical and listed properties are universally difficult, time consuming - and important. The steeple tower of the Memorial Hall was destroyed by fire in 1956. It was not until the 90s that the colourful and unique spire, lined in slate and copper tiles was restored, taking its rightful place in the campus skyline.

It is of course equally prohibitive to commission inspiring expansion, such as the Renzo Piano (in collaboration with Payette) work on the Harvard Art Museums, or green light entirely new buildings such as the recently completed Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) and Applied Sciences, positioned purposefully across Soldiers Field Road and the HBS campus - hoping for more alumni interaction in the form of start-up money for future discoveries.

Created by the Behnisch Architekten architectural firm, the cost is of the eight story (six above ground) centre, spread over a 2-hectare field is reported to have cost $1 billion – albeit laboratory centric buildings are notoriously cost prohibitive, this is nonetheless an alarming sum.

Where does the money come from? Endowments. Harvard has the largest endowment in the world, estimated to be $41 billion US dollars. Philanthropy for The Crimson appears to be bottomless - or is it?

Beyond the eye watering cost of maintaining and enlarging the university, one must also look at the effect of contentious architectural design such as that seen with the SEC. When looked upon with an ivy league lens one must ask, is this a Harvard building? Some, rather controversially (and maybe accurately) have described external aesthetics as having the charm of a cheese grater with the gleaming building curtain offering eco-friendly climate control, but none of the earthy charm of the core buildings.

Is this what students envisage when dreaming of their future education - all atria and pine furniture laden ‘break out’ spaces? Or is it the red bricks, ornate path lights and white framed six pane windows overlooking a postcard common? Giant hinges on heavy timber doors, bronze statues and Doric columns? In fact, is the original architecture and campus design a vital part of imparting a sense of generational wisdom sought by students from across the globe. And will endowments continue if new buildings fall into the modern vernacular with green credentials but bland visual appeal?

“You can’t contrive a sense of history - so I think it is appropriate that new buildings don’t have a pretence - but at the same time, there is an expectation,” says Carey.

One wonders if a 6-storey glass and steel edifice, with soaring atria and CLT clad walls will be the inspiration for future scholastic achievement.

In contrast, we turn to looking at perhaps the most modest and second oldest of all the buildings of Harvard. That of Wadsworth House, in Harvard Yard.

This little weatherboard and brick cottage was the Harvard University president’s residence from 1776. However, it was made more famous by General George Washington, who used the house as his first Massachusetts headquarters, and it was from this simple house that the General rode his horse to take command of the Continental Army, and independence for America was truly begun.

If ever there was a place that inspired great thought, that imbued a sense of potential, of fate, it may very well be found in the shaded grounds of Harvard. At least for the moment.

Image: Memorial Hall / Supplied.

Prue Miller

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