Sever Hall
Sever Hall, Harvard University
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Sever Hall, east facade.
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Location | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
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Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
Built | 1878 |
Architect | Henry Hobson Richardson |
Architectural style | Other, Romanesque |
Part of | Harvard Yard Historic District (#87002137) |
NRHP Reference # | 70000732 [1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | December 30, 1970 |
Designated NHL | December 30, 1970 |
Designated CP | December 14, 1987 |
Sever Hall is a notable building designed by famed American architect H. H. Richardson and built in the late 1870s. It is located on the grounds of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, within Harvard Yard. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970, recognized as one of Richardson's mature masterpieces.[2]
History
Sever Hall was built from 1878 to 1880 with a gift from Anne Sever in honor of her deceased husband, James Warren Sever. It was designed as an academic building with classrooms, lecture halls, rooms for professors, etc., in a style now known as Richardsonian Romanesque though in red brick rather than stone.
The building is 176 feet and 4 inches long, by 74 feet and 4 inches wide, with a height to cornice of about 50 feet, above which the hipped roof rises a further 30 feet. It is three stories tall, with a fourth story set within the roof. The main facade (west side) features two round bays set symmetrically about an entrance within a deeply recessed semi-circular archway. The east facade is similar but with a simpler, rectangular entrance. North and south facades are relatively austere expanses punctuated with windows.
About 1.3 million bricks were used in its construction. Of these, some 100,000 form the exterior facades, which feature 60 different varieties of red molded brick, as well as elaborate brick carvings. Blood mortar was used as a joiner originally, though polybond compounds have been used in restoration efforts since 1967.
The archway admitting entrance into the west facade possesses an acoustical oddity. Whispering directly into the bricks of the archway, while standing very close to one side of the arch, can be heard clearly on the other side of the arch (approximately twelve feet away).
In recent years, there has been renewed interest in Sever Hall among architectural historians,[citation needed] due to Robert Venturi's comment that it is his "favorite building in America."[3] He told Boston Globe critic Robert Campbell: "I have come to understand the validity of architecture as generic shelter rather than abstract-expressive sculpture, and as flexible loft for accommodating evolving functions . . . And then I love Sever Hall also for its aesthetic tension deriving from its vital details. I could stand and look at it all day. Thank you, H.H. Richardson."[4]
Usage
Sever has small classrooms and larger lecture halls, so it is mostly used as a general-purpose classroom building for humanities courses especially small sections, beginning language courses, and Harvard Extension School classes. Grossman Library, a non-circulating library serving Extension School students, is located on the third floor. The fourth floor of Sever, unnoticed by many of its students as the central stairwell does not lead to it, contains offices for Harvard's Visual and Environmental Studies department. In the evenings and on weekends student groups hold meetings or run annual events. One of Sever's notable annual events is Vericon, run during the break between semesters by the Harvard-Radcliffe Science-Fiction Association.
Gallery
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Sever Hall (Harvard University) - east facade entry.JPG
East facade entrance.
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Sever Hall (Harvard University) - west facade.JPG
West facade
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Sever Hall (Harvard University) - west facade entry.JPG
West facade entrance
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Sever Hall.jpg
Sever Hall west facade
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Sever Hall, west side entrance.jpg
Detail of west side entrance
See also
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Bibliography
Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
- Moses King, The Harvard Register, Harvard University, 1880, page 35.
- Roger H. Clark and Michael Pause, Precedents in Architecture, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1985. ISBN 0-442-21668-8.
- Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, H. H. Richardson, Complete Architectural Works, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1982.
References
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- Pages with broken file links
- Historic district contributing properties
- Articles with unsourced statements from January 2010
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- Harvard University buildings
- National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts
- Henry Hobson Richardson buildings
- Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Massachusetts
- National Register of Historic Places in Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Harvard Square