One Western Avenue

View of residential courtyard interior looking to Charles River.

Words from the Architects

The Harvard Graduate Student Housing at One Western Avenue comprises 230,000 square feet of apartment units serving 360 graduate students, as well as an additional 250,000 square feet for underground parking for 625 cars. The building occupies a site at the southeast corner of the Harvard Business School campus, adjacent to the Charles River, where Western Avenue crosses Soldiers Field Road. The site marks the arrival to campus from the south and opens up Western Avenue to the river.

View of wooden terrace benches and the concrete panels beneath the bridge.

The building is a single structure formed by the intersection of a five-story, U-shaped courtyard building, characteristic of Harvard's historic riverfront residential houses, and a fifteen-story tower emblematic of the University's more contemporary housing types. A raised, three-story volume spans 180 feet, dividing the central space into two distinct courtyards. One faces northward to the network of public spaces at the Business School, the other towards Western Avenue and the river. The spanning volume between frames an opening that offers views to the Charles River from an elevated terrace. In the southern edge of the site, a gateway provides access to the terrace from Western Avenue.

Overall view from the Charles River.

The project scope mandated economy in the selection of materials and a limit to the depth of the facades. Therefore, two basic materials - brick and pre-cast masonry units - are used to differentiate various volumes according to specific urban conditions. The low-rise portion surrounding the courtyard is clad in a continuous veneer of brick to maintain the texture and intimacy of the riverfront houses. Two patterns of brick differentiate between interior and exterior facades of the courtyard and are interwoven at the passageways. By contrast, the tower and adjacent elevated volume are clad in pre-cast masonry and adopt a scale more appropriate to the site's urban edges. Each volume is further articulated with a variety of masonry, coursing, and window patterns. The intersection and overlap of the various materials and patterns at critical moments in the facade offers a lucid reading of the overall volumetric composition.

Credits

• Text by Machado and Silvetti Associates
• Photographs © Michael Moran, Courtesy of Machado and Silvetti Associates

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