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Pierce Hall

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1900, Shaw and Hunnewell. 25 Oxford St.
  • (Keith Morgan)

Conant and Perkins halls launched the Georgian Revival at Harvard, a trend that had been gestating through the previous decade—with Richardson's design for Sever Hall (HY13), McKim's design for Johnston Gate (HY1), and Alexander W. Longfellow Jr.'s remodeling of Fay House (RA11) for Radcliffe College in 1890. What distinguished the new dormitories was their close imitation of the earliest surviving buildings on Harvard Yard, deliberately capturing the austerity of the colonial originals.

The studied simplicity of Conant and Perkins halls was not maintained for long among Harvard buildings; architects soon produced more elaborate interpretations of Georgian design. Pierce Hall is typical, with sculpted ornament and a plastic treatment of the building envelope.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Maureen Meister
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Data

What's Nearby

Maxwell Dworkin Computer Laboratory
Hoffman Laboratory
Law School Quadrangle
Perkins Hall
Gordon McKay Laboratory

Citation

Maureen Meister, "Pierce Hall", [Cambridge, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-NY7.3.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 326-326.

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