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Andover Hall
As happens on many older campuses, the original green in front of Andover Hall was lost to circumstance. After being commissioned for WWII housing, the site eventually gave way to the car and became a parking lot. In renovating Rock Hall (the preferred nickname for Rockefeller Hall), Harvard’s Divinity School seized an opportunity to reinstate the campus green with wide swathes of lawn and paths that better serve the contemporary built condition.
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Link to the Past
The new campus green is the foreground for more intimate landscape spaces that are directly adjacent to Rock Hall. One of the imperatives for the project was to protect the mature oak trees during construction since they provide an irreplaceable living tie to past generations, as well as the benefits of shade and a sense of scale.
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Under the Oaks
The plaza is anchored by the existing oak trees and serves both Rock and Andover Halls. The density of the plaza pavement is purposefully reduced where it is under the oaks, leaving plenty of area for water, air, and nutrients to be exchanged and benefit tree roots. The arrangement of the benches also changes under the trees, from clusters in the sunny plaza to singular blocks under the shady canopy.
Image: Charles Mayer.jpg)
Plaza Seating
Hefty Chelmsford granite blocks - a traditional New England stone - provide seating throughout the landscape, making perfect spots to meet, enjoy a treat from the café, or simply sit and watch. Using heavy stone allowed shallow foundations to be used, avoiding harm to existing or new tree roots that would have been caused by deep digging.
Image: Charles Mayer.jpg)
Labryrinth
Labyrinths have a long history at the Divinity School, temporarily appearing in unlikely places such as the old parking lot in front of Andover. Fittingly, the Rock Hall landscape has a contemplative garden with a stone labyrinth that is based on a 13th century pattern found on the floor of the Chartres Cathedral in France. The hedge surrounding the labyrinth is low by design, always inviting views to and from the campus surroundings as people make their pilgrimage in and out of the unicursal space.
Image: Charles Mayer.jpg)
Knitted Canopy
While campus greens are often enclosed by academic buildings, the landscape at Rock Hall fills this important role by making a definitive border of a path which is flanked by a closely-spaced honey locust tree allée and a colorful fothergilla hedge. As they grow, the tree canopies will knit together and read as one volume but the fothergilla will stay low enough to preserve views.
Image: Charles Mayer