Harvard Business School Graduate Student Apartments

The Harvard University Graduate Student Apartments, designed by Machado Silvetti, is a residential complex located in Allston, MA. The project was completed between 1999 and 2003.The building is situated at a prominent site at the southeast corner of the Harvard Business School, adjacent to the Charles River. The design of the building is based on interpretations of its physical context — the early-twentieth-century, five-story, brick-clad, U-shaped neo-Georgian courtyard houses and the mid-twentieth-century, twenty-story, concrete paneled modern towers. One of the key features of the project is a three-story bridge raised four levels above the ground and spanning 180 feet. This volume divides the main central void into two contrasting spaces, a courtyard (with framed views to the river) and a front lawn.The project also involved the transformation of currently undefined or leftover spaces into terraces, gardens, cloisters, and small sitting areas. Some existing buildings along the route were remodeled, and new structures were proposed. The building was one of the first designed to fulfill a new sustainability initiative at Harvard, known as “The Greening of the Crimson,” and has recently received a silver LEED rating.