Aesthetic patterns and repetitive shapes define life at Harvard
The geometry found in rooms and locations on campus sets the stage for a range of academic activities such as teaching, learning, research and cultural exchange. Whether monumental, small, or significant, these found patterns and architectural details offer calm and new perspectives into Harvard history and lore. Fleeting moments in time can be experienced between classes or while seated on a rainbow of chairs in Harvard Yard’s Common Spaces.


Jordan Rowe ’24 reads from a hammock in the courtyard of Leverett House. Students walk through a courtyard of Mather House as the trees sparkle in the light.

The CGIS Knafel building and IM Pei’s masterful glass skylight are framed by leaves and chairs as a student walks by.


The Pride Flag is displayed in a bay window in Lehman Hall, which houses the GSAS Student Center. An easel and palette display a riot of color, forming a colorful composition at Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts.


The Carpenter Center is housed in the only building in North America designed by Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier. The proportions of the building were designed in relation to the proportions of the human body. A student in the shade walks past glass cube windows at the Carpenter Center.

This view from a student lounge on the 10th floor of the Smith Campus Center shows hustle and bustle at the intersection of Holyoke Street and Mount Auburn.


Pierre-Louis Lechère, a GSAS student at the Wood Lab, enjoys a heated game of table tennis at the Science and Engineering Complex (SEC). At Harvard Yard’s Holworthy Gate, red brick, blue skies and spring blossoms all blend together as people walk by.

Inside the Barker Center, late afternoon light streams through an antler chandelier.

In the Thompson Room at the Barker Center, a highlight on a rug creates an abstract pattern.


In 2020, the Solomon Gate was unveiled in Harvard Yard near the Houghton Library. This was made possible with the support of Peter J. Solomon ’60, MBA ’63, and his wife, Susan. Students take an artistic stroll past Sol LeWitt’s “Wall Drawing #830,” 1997, a colored ink wash in the lobby of the Arthur M. Sackler Building at 485 Broadway.

Precious Njong Tahnji, an IT contractor for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, climbs a grand staircase while working at 485 Broadway.


An ornate gate is reflected in the entrance of Leverett House. A monument commemorating Edward Augustus Wild, Harvard class of 1844, who freed more than 2,500 slaves during the Civil War, graces the entrance to Annenberg Hall in Memorial Hall.

In Memorial Hall, arches frame clouds and students walking past the Science Center outside of Annenberg Hall.