News Alert: Harvard Students Really Do Live in a Bubble

What looks like an igloo but acts like an athletic field? Obviously, it’s Harvard’s latest nod to Inuit culture, a giant athletic facility that looks like it’s made of ice.

Sitting in the middle of Harvard Stadium, this silver plastic structure, dubbed “the bubble” by its devotees, encloses the stadium’s turf and is part of a general plan to improve the crumbling football stadium. Unfortunately for the those used to the brick charm of the Ivory Tower, the bubble is sadly lacking in aesthetic.

But no worries—the jocks don’t care about looks when it comes to their stadiums. What really matters for the soccer, lacrosse, and rugby teams (among others) is that inside, the bubble is all business.

After braving the wind tunnel known as JFK Street, the bubble beckons with heat and hot bodies. Pushing through the revolving doors, your ears pop from the change in pressure and you find yourself in unseasonable warmth. The air in the bubble, kept between 56 and 62 degrees Fahrenheit, smells distinctly of plastic and sweat.

Plus, it’s kind of thrilling entering a giant dome made of vinyl that could potentially deflate because of anything from wind, to snow, to someone opening too many of those pressurized doors.

But don’t lose too much sleep. “Snow should in theory fall off of it,” Director of Athletic Communications Chuck V. Sullivan assures us. And even if too many of the deadly doors were to open and the bubble began to collapse, alarms would sound so that the true athletes would have plenty of time to escape and continue practice in a real igloo.

Even the nasty Boston breeze can’t pop this bubble, as sensors constantly adjust the pressure of the structure to wind speed.

So even if Yale is a match for Harvard on its home turf, nature is not.