Harvard's Science Center plaza revived

The Science Center plaza, renovated, becomes a Harvard crossroads.

Photograph by Jim Harrison

Photograph by Jim Harrison

The plaza between Harvard Yard and the Science Center has been remade as a campus crossroads. It features fixed and movable seating, anchors for reunion tents, wiring for movie nights and other performances, and a trilevel planting of ginkgo trees, sumacs, and ferns to soften the Science Center facade and provide shade and year-round visual interest. Chris Reed ’91 of Stoss Landscape Urbanism was the principal designer; for details, see “A ‘Common Space’ at Harvard’s Crossroads.”

Related topics

You might also like

Long-discussed reorganization includes layoffs and the end of the Dudley Community.

A roundup of University news from the summer of 2026

FAS leaders say restructuring will be complete by mid-October.

Most popular

After a final round of layoffs, University leaders say 165 staff jobs were eliminated across the division.

All That’s Unseen charts the Harvard graduate’s uneasy journey from Appalachia to Cambridge and back.  

Court finds the government’s arguments that the University continues to violate civil rights laws unpersuasive.

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.

Caricature of a young man in front of red doors, wearing a green striped sweater.

In 1954, Gregory Corso moved into Eliot House. How he stayed there is a literary legend.

A busy classroom filled with students working at computers, colorful decor, and a bright atmosphere.

In 2004, a frenzy spread across Harvard Yard in days. Four billion users later, we are only just catching up.