New Harvard Business School Forms Complete Unit

Of the new University buildings which will be erected in Cambridge and Boston as soon, as the $10,000,000 endowment drive is completed, 13 are being planned for the Harvard Business School.

In order to find room for these buildings, which will involve an outlay of some $5,000,000, the University is again forced to move an important part of its work out of Cambridge. The Business School group is to be located in the Brighton district of Boston across the Charles River from the present Freshman group, and will occupy a part of the University's land across the street from the Stadium.

A departure in collegiate building design has been made by the adoption of Massachusetts Hall, the oldest college structure in America, as the keynote of the architecture. This famous old building has just been the scene of a fire, and press dispatches at the time united in calling it "the most beautiful college building in America".

Beauty Without Extravagance

It represents beauty in design with economy of construction and absence of excessive ornamentation. This is why President Lowell and Dean Donham of the Business School selected its type of architecture to dominate the group which Bishop Lawrence says "will be a great symbol of what right business means to the nation and a great memorial to the part great business men have played in the development of the country from Colonial times to the present day." Thomas Jefferson's design for the University of Virginia buildings has influenced the architecture of the most striking building.

Dean Donham has given out the following material, prepared by his office, relating to the Business School group:

The Business School is one of the youngest of the graduate departments of the University; and it is still working out problems in a new pedagogic field for the benefit of other colleges, 106 of which are now using its "case books of business". Harvard is continuing to experiment and test the methods of teaching business, which ultimately may still further standardize these methods.

Will Form Self-Sufficient Unit

The Business School, as a department of the University, will be a complete unit; the students will live, eat, exercise and study in their own buildings. As important parts of its training are the development of group consciousness and the stimulation of discussion among students, its Dean and Faculty believe dormitory life to be as important as in an undergraduate college.

The whole has been divided into three groups dependent on the different aspects of the daily life of the student; first, the study group; second, the recreation and dining halls; and third, the dormitory group. The buildings thus form three large quadrangles, giving the effect of the college groups at Oxford undoubtedly the finest cluster of scholastic buildings in the world. Oxford, therefore, gives the plan for the whole. For the details, southern Colonial university buildings have been studied and merged with our northern Georgian work.

The Business School buildings will be built of dark red brick with white trim, and cornices and gables similar to the original Harvard buildings, of which the most, famous is Massachusetts Hall. They will, of course, be of first-class fire proof construction which, unfortunately, many of the older buildings are not, as the recent fire in the oldest of them has proved.

A consideration of the separate buildings shows that the Administration building has on the first floor, the Dean's office, offices for the five assistant deans, conference rooms, information desk office of the registrar, offices for secretaries and clerical workers, and a large room divided into twenty compartments for readers of the students' reports, as well as space for fifty stenographers and typists. On the second and third floors are large spaces to be developed as the requirements demand, into compartments for teaching marketing, industrial management, accounting, finance, statistics and other subjects.

The two class-room buildings will each contain four amphitheaters. One of these buildings will have four rooms, each seating one hundred and seventy-five students; the other building of four rooms will seat one hundred and twenty-five students in each room. In this connection, it might be well to mention the fact that the professors have small desk spaces outside the amphitheaters in which to confer with the students between classes. All of these rooms have been studied from the point of view of accoustics and light.

Library to be Flexible

The Library is so designed that the stacks can be extended, and the whole building can be doubled, without in any way changing the present design. It is now planned to house 150,000 volumes.

An eight-story factory building, built at a short distance from the rest of the group, will give the students a chance to observe manufacturing methods. This is probably the most unique building connected with this group, as nothing of the kind has ever been built before. It is distinctly a part with the other experiments in education being made at the Harvard Business School.

The central quadrangle consists of the Auditorium and dining halls and the recreation building. The Auditorium, with its dome, is reminiscent of the central building of the University of Virginia, designed and built by Thomas Jefferson.

Dining Halls Provide Varied Service

On the ground level of this building and directly connected with the dormitories by covered passage, are the dining halls. They consist of a large room for the students, with a counter for cafeteria or self-service, although it is also arranged for waiters to serve the tables. The kitchen is on this same floor with its ice boxes, bake-shop, and stores.

On the first floor is the Auditorium approached by a wide flight of steps. The Auditorium, which is built like an amphitheater, seats approximately one thousand men. The stage has on either side of it small rooms for the professors. The interior of this Auditorium with its domed coiling, will be impressive from its size and proportions, rather than from its richness of detail.

The Recreation Building at the other end of the quadrangle from the Auditorium, is the social center of the Business School. On the first floor will be a large lobby, grill room and lounge. On the second floor, a large space has been provided which will be cut up into meeting rooms and club rooms. In this building twenty squash courts are also provided with the necessary lockers, and showers in the basement. As exercise plays such an important part in the life of a man taking intensive training, much emphasis has been put on his physical fitness.

The Dormitory group at present consists of four buildings, housing approximately eight hundred men. The Dormitory quadrangle, which is the largest, gives an opportunity for another dormitory across the center which like the administrative group, will then be divided in two. Additional dormitories around future quadrangles have been contemplated adjoining the present group.

Rooms to Fit Every Purse

Rooms must be provided in the dormitories of the School within the means of all the students, similar to the freshman dormitories. For this purpose, some rooms are designed to serve a single student as study and bedroom, some suites have a study and double bedroom and others, a study and single bedroom. Some of the rooms on the top floors with dormer windows, will be rented at a lower price than the others. Private baths have been omitted, and general showers and toilets being less expensive, have been centrally located to be used by all the students. Rooms in each dormitory have been provided for the proctors, thus increasing the personal contact and good fellowship between the staff and the students. Common rooms are provided in each dormitory where easy chairs and tables covered with the popular business magazines may be found