Skip to main content
Menu
Smith Campus Center
View All Records View On Map
Smith Campus Center
Smith Campus Center

Smith Campus Center

Address1350, Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, United States of America, 02138
Site Number100
Alternate Names Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center, Holyoke Center
Building Root Number 06043
Architect (Original)
Designer (Renewal)
Architect (Renewal)
Sponsor / Donor (Renewal)
Sponsor / Donor (Renewal)
Building Acquired 1963
Constructed 1963
Renewed 2018
StatusActive
Site Name HistoryThe site is named after Richard A. and Susan F. Smith, who donated funds in 2013 for the renovation of the building into a campus center. It was initially called Holyoke Center after Edward Holyoke (1689 –1769), minister and ninth president of Harvard College (1737-1769).Historical NotesThe Smith Campus Center was originally constructed in two phases: the southern half of the building was completed in 1964, and the northern half was completed in 1967. The building was designed by noted architect and Harvard professor Josep Lluis Sert working with his Cambridge-based firm, Sert Jackson Gourley. The building was designed to include Harvard's health services, administrative offices, ground floor retail space and a parking garage. It received the Harleston Parker Medal from the Boston Society of Architects in 1967 for being "the most beautiful piece of architecture, building, monument or structure within the limits of the City of Boston or of the Metropolitan Parks District". The building is constructed on the former site of Dudley House, Holyoke House, and Little Hall.
Additional Information
General Information by and about Holyoke Center. Harvard University Archives call number HUB 1403.1 and HUB 1403.100.2.
"The Holyoke Center: a Few Comments." Connection: Visual Arts at Harvard, Fall 1966, Vol. 4:1, pp. 4-[9]; with illus.
General Information by and about the University Health Center in Holyoke Center. Harvard University Archives call number HUB 1447.449.
Harvard University. Holyoke Center 22 Blueprints. Loeb Design Library call number PN 9.136 FF.
Houghton, Deborah, et al. Holyoke Center. Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, 1973. Loeb Design Library call number Thesis Houg.
Photographs of Model by Robert Harvey. Harvard University Archives call number HUB 1453.100.5.
Photograph of Model of Harvard Health Center, Designed by Sert, Jackson, and Gourley. Loeb Design Library call number VF NA 6765 H.
Harvard University Office and Health Center Building. Memorandum. Harvard University Archives call number HUB 1453.100.10.
"Another building ... the Second and Third Stages of the Holyoke Center." The Magazine of Cambridge, Vol. 23:2, Dec. 1962, pp. 21-22. Loeb Design Library call number VF NAB 5275 Har.
Boston Society of Architects. The Boston Society of Architects awards the Harleston Parker Medal to Sert, Jackson and Associates for excellence in the design and construction of Holyoke Center, Harvard University...June 5, 1968 [Broadside]. Harvard University Archives call number HUB 1453.100.6 pf.
Giesemann, Peter, et al. Holyoke Center, Harvard University, Cambridge Mass. Department of Architecture, 1984. Loeb Design Library call number Thesis Gie.
Harvard University Archives. Construction Management Records, ca. 1953-1986. Harvard University Archives call number UAV 298.8000
Sert, José Luis, and Frances L. Loeb Library. The Josep Lluis Sert Collection. (1952). Print. Harvard Loeb Design Library Special Collections.
Cousins, Stephens. “Still Brutalist, but Lighter and Brighter: Hopkins’ ‘radical Re-Appraisal’ of the Smith Campus Center at Harvard Adds Communal Space, Daylight and Greenery without Compromising the Brutalist Original.” RIBA Journal, vol. 126, no. 5, May 2019, pp. 30–32.
Babür, Oset. “Harvard Hubs.” Harvard Magazine, vol. 121, no. 2, Nov-Dec. 2018, pp. 24–26.
Campbell, Robert. “In Adventurous Building, Harvard Gets a ‘front Door’ Open to the Public.” Boston Globe, 1 Oct. 2018.
Campbell, Robert. “Reimagined Building Gives Harvard a Bold ‘Front Door’: Smith Campus Center Connects College, City.” Boston Globe, 1 Oct. 2018, p. A.1.
“Four Current Projects in the News.” Architectural Record, vol. 124, no. 1, 1958, p. 149, usmodernist.org/AR/AR-1958-07.pdf.
“New Work of Sert Jackson and Gourley.” Architectural Record, vol. 131, no. 5, 1962, pp. 131–38, usmodernist.org/AR/AR-1962-05.pdf.
Watson, George H. “Mass. Ave. Development Planned by University.” The Harvard Crimson, 8 May 1957, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1957/5/8/mass-ave-development-planned-by-university/.
Architect Sert Defends His Buildings As Making “A Livelier Environment” | News | The Harvard Crimson. 9 Oct. 1963, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1963/10/9/architect-sert-defends-his-buildings-as/.
“Worker Dies.” The Harvard Crimson [Cambridge, MA], 19 Feb. 1965, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1965/2/19/worker-dies-pa-worker-injured-in.
1967 winner of the Boston Society of Architects Harleston Parker Medal.
2019 winner of the Boston Society of Architects Harleston Parker Medal.
2019 winner of the Education Facilities Design Award by the Society for College and University Planning.
This building has been designated by the University Planning Office as having a Notable Interior.
Related Projects