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Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Carpenter center.jpg
The Carpenter Center
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts is located in Massachusetts
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts is located in the US
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Location Cambridge, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°22′23.28″N 71°6′52.66″W / 42.3731333°N 71.1146278°W / 42.3731333; -71.1146278Coordinates: 42°22′23.28″N 71°6′52.66″W / 42.3731333°N 71.1146278°W / 42.3731333; -71.1146278
Built 1963
Architect Le Corbusier
Architectural style Modern
NRHP Reference # 78000435
Added to NRHP April 20, 1978

The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts is the only building actually designed by Le Corbusier in the United States, and one of only two in the Americas (the other is the Curutchet House in La Plata, Argentina). Le Corbusier designed it with the collaboration of Chilean architect Guillermo Jullian de la Fuente at his 35 rue de Sèvres studio; the on-site preparation of the construction plans was handled by the office of Josep Lluís Sert, then dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He had formerly worked in Le Corbusier's atelier and had been instrumental in winning him the commission. The building was completed in 1962.

During the mid-1950s, the idea of creating a place for the visual arts at Harvard began to take shape. A new department dedicated to the visual arts was created, and the need for a building to house the new department arose. A budget was set for $1.3 million, and the proposal was included in a Harvard fundraising program. The project immediately elicited a response from St. Vrain Carpenter, an alumnus who supplied $1.5 million for the proposed design center. The donation propelled the project forward, and the Committee for the Practice of Visual Arts began to look for an architect to undertake the project. Originally, the committee had recommended that the building be designed by "a first rate American architect" who would be in the company of Charles Bulfinch and Walter Gropius, among others. However, José Luis Sert, who was at the time Dean of the Graduate School of Design and chairman of the committee suggested that his friend and previous collaborator, Le Corbusier, be asked to design the building. Delayed due to scheduling and payment conflicts, Le Corbusier eventually accepted and made his first of two visits to Cambridge in 1959.

After much debate, a site was chosen between Quincy and Prescott Streets, abiding by the original proposal for the building. The allotted space was quite small, so the completed building presents itself as a compact, roughly cylindrical mass bisected by an S-shaped ramp on the third floor. Le Corbusier's earliest design showed a much more pronounced ramp that further separated the two parts of the central mass. However, the early design created the problem of too much disruption of the central mass. This problem auditorium reconciled by using a pinwheel effect so that in the finally executed design, the two halves meet at a vertical core that houses an elevator. The concrete ramp is cantilevered from this central spine and stands atop a few pilotis. The landing at the top of the ramp is located in the core of the building and leads to various studios and exhibition spaces seen through glass windows and doors, providing views into the building's instructional and displaying functions without interrupting the activities in progress.


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