architecture: Harvard and Cambridge

"I don't think there's any-place, besides maybe California, with so many good architects concentrated in one area," says one of those good architects, Louis A. McMillen of The Arrhitects Collaborative.

Another, Terry Rankin of Cambridge Seven, compares Cambridge with 15th century Italy: "It's the romantic idea, you know. Schools are clustered around in a chunk of culture, and there is play back and forth between the office and the university."

Cambridge has become a center for architects for two reasons--the universities and Walter Gropius.

A Cambridge movement, a school has developed. These pages explore that Cambridge phenomenon and how it relates to Harvard.

On the next page three important Cambridge architectural firms are examined, and Gropius speaks on his work and philosophy. On pages four and five there is a look at the architect at Harvard: a portrait of Design School Dean Jose Luis Sert and a survey of changes in the undergraduate architectural sciences program.

Controversial architect John Andrews, just commissioned to do Gund Hall, is interviewed and appraised on page six. On pages seven and eight photo essays contrast old and new Harvard architecture.