The Class of 1959 Chapel is a

non-denominational A non-denominational person or organization is one that does not follow (or is not restricted to) any particular or specific religious denomination. Overview The term has been used in the context of various faiths including Jainism, Baháʼí Fait ...

chapel located on the campus of

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

in Boston, Massachusetts. It was designed by Moshe Safdie in 1992, as part of a master plan to complement the existing 1927 campus architecture by McKim, Mead and White that would allow for Business School to expand along the Charles River. It was funded by a gift from alumni from the Class of 1959. It was engineered by Weidlinger Associates and built by Richard White Sons, Inc. for a cost of approximately $2.5 million.

Structure

The chapel consists of an concrete cylinder surfaced with a layer of patinaed

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

. On one side of the cylinder is a

pyramidal A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilater ...

glass

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

that houses a below-ground koi pond decorated with live plants, a small waterfall, and concrete blocks that serve as stepping stones. Outside the chapel is a rectangular marble tower containing a two-story steel pole and a large bronze ball. The tower is a functioning clock; as the ball moves up and down the pole, lines on the tower indicate the time of day. The timepiece was designed by Karl Schlamminger.

Interior

The chapel itself occupies nearly all of the ground floor of the building and is accessed through a tall metal door from the greenhouse. The interior is a two-story stone cylinder with several semi-circular concrete constructions scalloping the walls. At the top of the cylinder are thin windows with several long prisms designed by the artist Charles Ross that create raking light and occasionally rainbows across the austere concrete interior.

Usage

The furnishings are simple and consist primarily of rows of wooden chairs, which seat approximately 100 people, a spare concrete altar, a piano, and a

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

. The

acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

of the chapel are very crisp for a room made almost entirely of concrete. The chapel is used by the Harvard Business School community for non-denominational services, private celebrations, and concerts.Harvard Business School website
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Gallery

References

External links

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Safdie Architects profileRichard White Sons profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Class of 1959 Chapel, The Churches completed in 1992 Harvard Business School Harvard University buildings University and college chapels in the United States Churches in Boston Moshe Safdie buildings 1992 establishments in Massachusetts