Harvard Science Center
Encyclopedia
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
campus for undergraduate science and mathematics.
The Science Center was designed by Catalan architect Josep Lluís Sert
Josep Lluís Sert
Josep Lluís Sert i López was a Spanish Catalan architect and city planner.- Biography :Born in Barcelona, he showed keen interest in the works of his painter uncle Josep Maria Sert and of Gaudí. He studied architecture at the Escola Superior d'Arquitectura in Barcelona and set up his own studio...
, then dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
, and built in 1973. Despite popular rumors, the building was not constructed to resemble old incarnations of the Polaroid camera, though its construction was financed by Edwin Land, Class of 1930, who invented the camera.
The Science Center houses a very diverse number of rooms and plays an integral role in the education of any Harvard student, many of whom visit the center at least once a day. The Science Center houses the offices of three academic departments, History of Science, Mathematics, and Statistics. The Cabot Science Library is also housed here. Other facilities of the Science Center include the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning; the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments; FAS Media and Technology Services ; Harvard Printing and Publications Services; the Greenhouse Cafeteria; the Harvard Yard Mail Center; the Prep Room Lecture Media Services; Lecture Demonstration Services; the Computer Products and Repair Center; teaching laboratories for astronomy, biology, organic and inorganic chemistry, geology, and physics; twenty general-use classrooms; innumerable offices; and other resources.
Its largest and most utilized facilities are its five lecture halls, three of which have capacity for several hundred students, and all five are used for large lectures and speaker events. The basement and first floor are open 24 hours a day; access to the rest of the building after 5:00 p.m. is limited to Harvard University ID holders and others with proper authorization. (Source)
In addition to its lecture halls, the Harvard University Science Center features a statue of a duck, a library, a museum, two telescopes, a cafeteria, sixteen bathrooms, three vending machines, velvet drapes, and a fountain.