Arts join sciences in Harvard Allston

Alongside a huge applied-sciences center, a toehold for art-making

Photograph from the OxBlue Construction Cameras

Though attention rightly focuses on the engineering and applied sciences complex taking shape on Western Avenue, its smaller cousin, the 9,000-square-foot ArtLab maker space (sited around the corner, on North Harvard Street; see harvardmag.com/artlab-plans-17), is also well under way, as shown in these November views. As the fine print always cautions, these images are not to scale: the billion-dollar science facility appears below, and its humanistic neighbor—at roughly one-hundredth the investment—above. But as a harbinger of other potential arts and related facilities in the vicinity, the ArtLab looms large.


Photograph from the OxBlue Construction Cameras

You might also like

Three Harvard Alumni and a Former Postdoc Named MacArthur Fellows

A labor economist, an organic chemist, a physicist, and a memory researcher were honored with 2026 “genius” grants.

At Harvard’s IOP, Two Views of Diversity Get a Hearing

Professor Cornell William Brooks and Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts hold a lively debate on DEI and Project 2025.

Harvard Graduate Students Union Begins Strike Authorization Vote

Amid contract negotations, two unions are discussing a joint walkout this fall.

Most popular

Lafayette’s Unexpected Gift to George Washington: Pheasants

The two birds will be on display at Harvard this summer.

Harvard Weathers a Year of Turmoil

The federal government has launched unprecedented actions against the University. Here’s a guide.

Harvard Couple Aim to Cure Prion Diseases

The stakes are high for this husband and wife: one of them will die if they don’t find a cure.

Explore More From Current Issue

Portrait of a man in a denim shirt beside a blue book cover for "Gretal and the Great War" featuring an illustration of a leg holding an army helmet..

The Gretel and the Great War author on how the Lampoon derailed his science career—and set him on a literary path.

A vase of yellow flowers on a table next to an orange and a glass.

Harvard Art Museums restores a rare glimpse of an American master.

Three young women posed side by side against red background.

The 2026-2027 Ledecky and Summer Undergraduate Fellows