Littauer School, Features Summer News

In a summer fraught with Harvard news, of most immediate interest to students comes the announcement of definite plans for the erection of the new Graduate School of Public Administration, established recently under a gift from Lucius N. Littauer '76, of New York City.

In an official statement, dated August 24, officials say "the university will demolish the outmoded Hemenway Gymnasium, a Harvard landmark since 1878," build the new school on the site vacated, "and erect a new gymnasium nearby which will carry the Hemenway name."

Construction of both buildings will begin within a few months, as soon as detailed plans and specifications are completed. The architects for both buildings are Coolidge, Shepley, Bulifinch, and Abbott, of Boston. Gavin Hadden, of New York, will act as consultant on the planning of the gymnasium.

The Public Administration building will bear the name of the donor and will be in Georgian style, four stories high, and about 250 feet long and 50 feet wide. The structure will face toward Harvard Square and will extend westward approximately from the present eastern end of the Hemenway gymnasium to the triangle in front of Austin Hall.

In order to make room for the new gymnasium, Gannett House, a frame building dating from about 1830 and now used by the Harvard Law School, will be moved within the next month a short distance from its present location at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Holmes Place. It will stand on what is now the western branch of Holmes Place and will face to the east.

The Graduate School of Public Administration opened last March with exploratory conferences between the Faculty and government officials. These conferences will continue during the coming academic year in Hunt Hall in the College Yard, and the school will open to students in the fall of 1938. It will operate on a "post-professional" basis and will be limited at first to the advanced training of men already in the government service.