Yard Restoration Wins Awards

For generations of Harvard first-years, the Yard is a place to call home for ten months. For generations of Americans, it is an historic architectural achievement.

Since 1991, the University has poured millions of dollars into restoring the Yard, and earlier this week, the project received an award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation at a conference in Boston.

The Yard restoration project was one of 17 entries to be recognized with a 1994 National Preservation Honor Award, according to Elizabeth F. Jones, Director of Preservation Programs at the National Trust.

The Trust praised Harvard's restoration team for its "meticulous efforts to return the historic buildings and their settings to their original appearance."

In addition to the buildings, the three-quarter-mile long wrought iron and masonry fence encircling the Yard was restored. But Harvard's restoration project will continue into the next century. Over the next several years, 250 trees will be replanted.

Sally H. Zeckhauser, vice-president for administration, accepted the award on Thursday on behalf of the University.

"For all of us, it was a privilege to work on a group of buildings and their surrounding landscape, which carry such a special significance in the history of Harvard, of American higher education, and of American architecture," Zeckhauser said.

The restoration project was one of 111 submissions, Jones said. An advisory committee--comprised of architects and members of historical preservation and heritage societies from across the country--began reviewing applications in July, she said. Judges reviewed slides and black and white photographs of all of the prospective sites.

"The project encompassed the whole Yard--buildings, landscape, and the fence," said Jones, who staffed the judging committee and sat in on the review meetings.

University officials and trustees required that the restoration work match the quality of the original craftsmanship. But project planners also stressed the importance of making the Yard contemporary.

"It is a combination of returning the buildings to their original appearance, while making them much more relevant to the 20th century," said Melodee Wagen, senior planning analyst for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). "We are making [the Yard] 'live' space."

When asked to identify an aspect of the restoration plan that made it noticeable and worthy of recognition, Philip Parsons, director of planning for FAS, pointed out the "comfortable" atmosphere and feeling the Yard conveys.

"The Yard is not pretentious and the buildings are not intimidating," Parsons said. "The plan is a complex effort to achieve simplicity."

Parsons said it pleases him to see students "bumping into each other at 2 or 3 in the morning" and casually chatting in the Yard. "The place is not over-elegant," he added.

The Wang Center for the Performing Arts in Boston and the Block Island Southeast Lighthouse were among other sites honored by the Trust, according to Jones.

"The dedication and commitment demonstrated by the men and women behind these success stories deserve to be applauded," said Richard Moe, National Trust president, in a press release from the Trust.

"Proving that no hurdle is too high or task too great, the 17 winners of the 1994 Honor Awards are the embodiment of preservation's diversity and vitality," Moe said.

Parsons also offered commendation to those closely involved in the project. "I think it's a wonderful group of people who are working on it," Parsons said.

The Yard restoration project also received a preservation award from the Boston Society of Architects, according to the Harvard Gazette.

The buildings being restored in the Yard, which include eight dormitories, were built in various years between 1720 to 1872.

This story was compiled using Associated Press wire dispatches.