Harvard NW Corner – Cambridge, MA

Harvard Law School’s “Northwest Corner” project—at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Everett Street—will make tangible fundamental changes in legal education. An unusually complex project—a quarter-million square feet of space sited atop much subterranean parking (it displaced a former garage on the site)—its ungainly name reflects a multifaceted program: Wasserstein Hall, Caspersen Student Center, and the Clinical Wing. The first is the major block of space, on Mass. Ave., containing modern classrooms that better accommodate the school’s smaller first-year course sections, and the burgeoning offerings in a course catalog now brimming with international and other new subjects of interest. The Caspersen space, linking to Harkness Commons, provides room for both student legal organizations and socializing. And the Clinical Wing, on Everett Street, will sensibly organize the operations of nearly 30 in-house hands-on programs—an essential element in professional training. As a whole, the structure redefines the entry to the school’s campus, while creating, away from the street, an attractive new quadrangle.