The Landscape Architect’s Guide to

LISE and Science Center Courtyards

Your Guide

Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has rapidly expanded over the past decade. The addition of the Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering (LISE) created the University’s first research facility for nanotechnology. As Harvard evolves as an institution, every new building and landscape is an opportunity to improve the relationship to its urban context.

Here, the new LISE Courtyard and renovated Science Center Courtyard unify and serve both new and existing buildings. The LISE Courtyard is an extension of the building’s interior café—a full glass curtain wall helps to erase the boundaries between inside and outside. The Science Center Courtyard was an existing space that was overhauled when the existing café was re-done. Enclosed but open to the sky, the Courtyard landscape registers the weather and seasons for building users.

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Multifunctional Space

The Courtyard was built as part of the LISE project but it benefits the entire complex by creating a crossroads for diverse populations from the adjacent Music, Science Center, and McKay buildings. A terraced lawn creates perches for people-watching and casual gathering, but it also transforms into an amphitheater for lectures and other events on its lowest paved level.

Image: Charles Mayer LISE 2

Reflected Sky

The glassy McKay and LISE buildings reflect the sky, making an ever-changing backdrop for the courtyard. Even on cooler days, the reflected heat and bright light make it comfortable to be in this space. Chairs and tables are not fixed in place, allowing for flexible seating configurations for different size groups and the ability to move in and out of shade.

Image: Charles Mayer LISE 3

Birch Grove

Built on top of a 3-story building, the sloping lawn parallels the pitched subterranean roof below. On a rounded berm at the high point of the lawn, a grove of river birch trees creates a relaxed place to hang out below their loose canopies; the berm also ensures that there is sufficient soil depth for the trees.

Image: Charles Mayer LISE 4

Site Plan

This is a construction plan of the LISE Courtyard that shows details about the topography. Like architects and engineers, landscape architects prepare technical drawings for bidding and construction. Landscape architects then observe the construction to make sure that it meets both technical requirements and design intent.

Image: Stephen Stimson Associates LISE 5

Al Fresco Dining

Nearby in the Science Center is a bustling café close to the Cabot Science Library. In good weather, that activity spills out into the adjacent landscaped Central Courtyard. Accessible only from the inside of the Science Center, the Courtyard is visible from hallways, classrooms, and offices so the landscape composition is pleasing and coherent from every vantage point.

Image: Charles Mayer LISE 6

Rooftop Garden

Like so many contemporary landscapes in Harvard’s Life Sciences Complex, the Central Courtyard is built over structure. If the landscape had been built directly on top of the given roof elevation, it would have required the construction of 4 foot high planter boxes to achieve adequate soil depth. Instead, the designer suggested raising the entire floor of the courtyard so that the planters would be mostly hidden and not overpower its intimate scale.

Image: Charles Mayer LISE 7

Gather Under the Redbuds

Instead of traditional planter walls, the designer used steps and seatwalls to surround beds. The deep treads of the steps are comfortable for sitting and their long length make it easy to accommodate many at once. The unusual white-flowered redbud trees bloom before their leaves appear, with the flowers growing straight from the branches, making their delicate form apparent in the early spring.

Image: Charles Mayer LISE 8

Red + Yellow

Brightly colored umbrella tables enliven the Courtyard year-round but when thousands of daffodils bloom in late March and early April, the landscape signals that warm weather is just ahead. The bulbs are interspersed among a field of bearberry, a native groundcover, which turns bright red in the fall. Wood decking makes up part of the raised floor and it was chosen to add warmth to the material palette and make a subtle reference to intimately-scaled gardens.

Image: Charles Mayer