Harvard University : Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts (Cambridge, MA) : View looking up the west ramp, from the south

Creator:

Le Corbusier, 1887-1965
Sert, Josep Lluis, 1902-1983

Published/Created:

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
1959-1962

Date Depicted:

8/13/2008
1950 AD - 2010 AD

Materials:

concrete
glass
glass block

Notes:

The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts (1959-1962), Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, was Le Corbusier's only North American commission. One of his erstwhile assistants in the Rue de Sèvres studio, Josep Lluís Sert, the new Dean of the Graduate School of Architecture at Harvard, called him in when a benefactor, St Vrain Carpenter, offered to fund a centre for the visual arts dedicated to learning by doing, in contrast (but adjacent) to the highly traditional Fogg Museum and Fine Arts Department. Le Corbusier declared as one of his reasons for accepting the commission that he wished to put on show in the USA the repertory of his 'inventions'. In fact, the building can be read as an inventory of his mature vocabulary: the brise-soleil, the ondulatoires, the aérateurs, as well as the older features such as the exposed piloti, the roof garden and the pedestrian ramp. An astonishing aspect, however, is that the building retains a freshness and dynamism that, on a confined site and in the presence of dignified red-brick campus classicism, takes the breath away. This was a case in which Le Corbusier's original sketch of 1 April 1960 survived all pragmatic alterations during the design and construction processes.

Topics:

Architecture -- United States -- 20th century -- (YVRC)

Period/Style:

Modern
Modernist

Culture:

American

Accession Number:

1A1-LC-CC-B2

Genre:

architecture (AAT)
educational centers (buildings) (AAT)
schools: universities (buildings) (AAT)

Format:

Image

Content Type:

Sculptures, Models, & Architecture

Rights:

Copyright Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc
The use of this image may be subject to the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) or to site license or other rights management terms and conditions. The person using the image is liable for any infringement.

Access Restrictions:

Yale Community Only

Digital:

architectural exteriors; contemporary (1960 to present); Artists' studios construction building divisions; rooms and spaces; classrooms; building divisions; rooms and spaces; studios (work spaces); buildings; institutional buildings; schools (buildings)

Source Creator:

Gilchrist, Scott

Source Title:

Archivision Module Two

Source Created:

2878 Chamonix, Montreal QC
Archivision, Inc.
8/13/2008

Source Note:

Purchase, Visual Resources Collection, May, 2011; photographer Scott Gilchrist

Yale Collection:

Visual Resources Collection

Digital Collection:

Visual Resources Collection

Local Record Number:

4152

OID:

10164931

PID:

digcoll:1821198