A New Face

Last year humanities concentrators and professors returned to a splendidly remodeled (and renamed) Barker Center for the Humanities. Upon their return this year, this same group will be treated to an equally dazzling renovation of Boylston Hall.

University contractors completed structural renovations on the century-old Harvard Yard building this summer and are now working on the finishing touches.

"It's impossible to recognize. If someone had brought me here without telling me it was Boylston, I would not have recognized it," said Assistant Professor of Italian Laura Benedetti.

The renovation marks the final step in a multi-year Faculty of Arts and Science's initiative to consolidate its humanities departments in the Barker Center and Boylston Hall.

Upon entering Boylston, the most noticeable change is the restructuring of the auditorium.

The auditorium's axes were rotated 90 degrees and three previously boarded-up windows facing Wigglesworth Hall were opened.

The room is now two stories high, and seats are on an incline.

"People are very pleased with it. It feels very intimate for a 144-person lecture room," said Project Manager Elizabeth Randall, who also managed the Barker Center renovation.

The mezzanine now contains a C'est Bon cafe with booths and tables set up for eating and studying, similar to the cafe set-up in the Barker Center.

The basement and upper floors house department offices and seminar rooms for the Literature, Classics, Comparative Literature, Linguistics and Romance Languages and Literatures departments.

Randall--who described the pre-renovated building as "depressing in terms of the ceiling height and lighting"--said improving the building's lighting was one of her primary goals. To this end, the architect, Rob Olson, created alcoves along each wall with inset lighting that projects onto the ceiling.

Boylston Hall was last renovated in 1959, the first modern refurbishment of the Yard's older buildings.

Reaction among returning Faculty members has been very positive, according to Randall. "People are thrilled. They respond to sense of color and light. It's very energetic," Randall said.

"It's really functional space. It lacks some Harvard charm, but I'm sure as the year goes on, it will take on some personality," said Adela C. Acevedo '01, who works in the Romance Languages and Literature department.