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The center in the crossroads

Crowd gathers to watch movie at Smith Campus Center.

Campus & Community

The center in the crossroads

A crowd gathers to watch “Incredibles 2” at Student Movie Night in the newly opened Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center.

Photo by Liza Voll

New Smith Campus Center is a welcome to all

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Reimagined, redesigned, and replete with new restaurants and study spaces, the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center officially opened Thursday with a dedication ceremony attended by Harvard President Larry Bacow, President Emerita Drew Faust, and members of the Harvard and Cambridge communities.

The center is an anchor for Harvard’s campus, and now a crossroads for the entire community. The first and second floors include the Moise Y. Safra Welcome Pavilion and Plaza along Massachusetts Avenue, where people can mingle, join tours of Harvard, and take in views of the square and the city beyond. Outside, new plazas open to Mass. Ave. and Mount Auburn Street; while indoors people lounge in large interior spaces with soaring ceilings, and a new roof deck along Dunster Street.

With its open-air vitrine garden, glass facades, and green walls irrigated with UV-filtered rainwater harvested from the center’s rooftop, the renovations increase access to daylight and nature.

Hungry passersby can grab a bite at Pavement Coffeehouse, Swissbäkers, Bon Me,  Blackbird Doughnuts, and Oggi Gourmet, which will be joined in the coming weeks by Whole Heart Provisions and James Beard winner Jody Adams’ Saloniki.  The center also offers spaces for meeting and performances, or a game of chess at any of 14 new tables.

The Campus Center first opened in 1966, designed by renowned architect Josep Lluís Sert, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design from 1953 to 1969. The renovations were designed by Hopkins Architects of London, with the Cambridge-based firms Bruner/Cott as executive architect and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates  as landscape architect.

 

Overhead view of Smith Campus Center.

The Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center as seen from Harvard Yard.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Larry Bacow, Richard A. Smith, and Drew Faust.

President Larry Bacow, donor Richard A. Smith, and President Emerita Drew Faust pose during the Smith Campus Center dedication and celebration.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Richard A. Smith at the Smith Campus Center Dedication and Celebration.
Elizabeth Katz at the Smith Campus Center Dedication and Celebration.

Harvard President Larry Bacow (from left), President Emerita Drew Faust, Chella Safra, and Richard A. Smith join in applause at the Smith Campus Center dedication ceremony, as Richard Smith’s great-granddaughter Sara Katz, 2, on the lap of her mother, Elizabeth Katz, finds some amusement in the Smith Campus Center dedication.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Harvard Bhangra dancers.

Harvard Bhangra performs a spirited dance during the Smith Campus Center dedication.

Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer

Harvard Commons.

Students enjoy the Harvard Commons in the new campus center.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Vincent Brown.
Arpan Sarkar and Cayanne Chachati.

Professor Vincent Brown (left) enjoys coffee inside the Moise Y. Safra Welcome Pavilion as Arpan Sarkar ’21 (right) and Cayanne Chachati ’21 look out onto Harvard Square from the Moise Y. Safra Welcome Pavilion.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Anna Uhr.
Former Harvard men's basketball player, Zena Edosomwan '17 and Tiana Woolridge, PhD candidate.

Anna Uhr ’19 uses a touch screen in the Moise Y. Safra Welcome Pavilion to look up past Harvard Gazette articles. Former Harvard basketball power forward Zena Edosomwan ’17 and Ph.D. candidate Tiana Woolridge enjoy one of many green walls in the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

 

Blackbird Doughnuts.

Leah Bushman works at Blackbird Doughnuts inside the Harvard Commons, as Jonathan Paulo (background), a Divinity School employee, looks on.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Ayanna Dunmore.

Ayanna Dunmore ’19 enjoys the roof deck garden overlooking Dunster Street.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Toba Olokungbemi and Tiffany Thompson.
Maya McDougall.

Toba Olokungbemi ’22 (from left) and Tiffany Thompson, a student at Harvard Kennedy School, work in the Collaborative Commons at the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center. Maya McDougall ‘22 and Aaron Chen ‘22 (left), work in the Collaborative Commons.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographe

Marwan Refaat

Marwan Refaat, a first-year Harvard Extension School student from Egypt, explores the view from the 10th floor of the new Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center. In the background are Eliot House and the Malkin Athletic Center.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Foos ball on a veritas table.
Marwan Refaat and George Jones.

A Veritas shield adorns a foosball table in the 10th-floor lounge. Extension School student Marwan Refaat plays pool with painter George Jones.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Smith Campus Center scene.

Mount Auburn Plaza and Harvard University Health Services sport a new entrance at the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center.

Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

The Arcade, (left) circa 1968 and the Arcade, (right) circa 1974.

Courtesy of the Sert Archives/Graduate School of Design

Students fill the Arcade during the Student Late Night Open House: SCC After Dark party earlier this month.

Photo by Liza Voll

Students line up (left) to sample treats from Pavement Coffeehouse, one of the local vendors now situated inside the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center. A printing press makes bags during the Student Late Night Open House: SCC After Dark party.

Photos by Liza Voll

Students packed a screening of “Incredibles 2” at the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center.

Photo by Liza Voll

Students dance to the Boston Common Band during the Student Late Night Open House: SCC After Dark party.

Photos by Liza Voll

Visitors relax outside the newly opened Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center.

Photo by Liza Voll

 

Learn more about the Smith Campus Center, as well as Harvard’s Common Spaces program, which oversees events, activities, and reservations in the new spaces by visiting commonspaces.harvard.edu.

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