Rosovsky Hall, Harvard Hillel

Harvard Hillel is part of a nationwide organization providing Jewish college students with facilities for worship, study, and social activities. Moshe Safdie's design for Rosovsky Hall is a virtuoso geometric composition wherein a circle is surrounded by three rectangles within an overall modified Greek cross. Three rectangular solids—two congregational spaces and one for dining, library, and offices—are defined by skylit barrel vaults faced in leaded copper, all grouped around a circular colonnaded court. Supposedly uniting these parts with the Harvard quadrangles, the open court above street level serves as a gathering place in clement weather and for the weeklong Feast of Tabernacles. Materials are rich and varied, and the walls are limestone-colored precast concrete and brick. The glass-and-stone framed entrance pavilion, however, fails in its attempt to establish a dialogue with the Harvard Lampoon (see HS4) opposite.