Harvard Law School - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

Page 15 text:

1 . fy 4 ft v ' Lower left: Crane Memorial Li- brary, Quincy. The similarities be- tween Austin Hall and this roughly contemporaneous structure are ob- vious. Upper left: Richardson's early sketch of a plan for Austin Hall. Note the asymmetry of the main mass of the building. Upper right: The front of Austin Hall as seen prior to the triumph of the automobile. Lower right: A nineteenth century view of the rear of Austin Hall taken when it was the law school's only building.

Page 14 text:

' 1' U- , es: , - H 1 1 LV W p J.kL,!5i' , KW .ii uw G ' ffab' 'f 'Ip3'F?i'ff'?g'Q-I . i- 1 , . I V 1. I-'Xa' 1 M . ' ' 4 . i - ' 54' ' mmlz' mot ,, ' '-1 r ,, ,M F., , ,- QE! , lg, ,, will .. W , ,A 7 an if :ar -if -l - .pun .V , . V-we M 4 Q 'RN iii' N-fL'f is , N y Q . WUI w ifi: l 1 :Af , H ' if lt! get ,ll Fi 'Mi - 'XE'lj 3 if it ,Q T' fl 2 TF ' f ,, -. W 5 ' itrgrrnqg in f .V A .Y , 'U if , . . ' l -' , 8 Romanesque style. This early plan remains only in the asymmetrical stair tower that is the mark of Elsinore upon Austin Hall. The design that was finally executed was far simpler in its exterior articulation than Richardson's initial plang but it retains an interior of delicate complexity. The two smaller lecture halls are placed symmetrically on either side of the main mass of the building which houses the principal lecture room and the Ames courtroom Cthen the reading room of the libraryj. At the juncture of these three lecture rooms Richardson placed tiny rooms and spaces gathered in small groups like isolated volumes on some lost bookshelf But it 1S upstairs in the library reading room that Richardson creates his finest interior space This magnificently proportioned room is marred now by row after row of singularly ugly seats, but one must see it as Richardson planned it: an enormous room but as well lit as possible in the days of the gas lamp filled with tables of energetic students Csoon more filled than Richardson could have dreamed the school he designed for 250 students was to hold 716 before Langdell was builtj spanned overhead by wooden beams whose carved beasts eternally devour one another and warmed by a grand fireplace whose stone decoration may be the finest 3 7 9 9 . . 7 7 7 e .E

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A Rogue's gallery of Richardsorfs gremlins. , - ,- 5'!- ' ' 'r-1 ..,..- ' - .' ' N' f-. 1 .-, Qi A v ' .Q I J-1 5 -5 at, f 1 , U F-, an .LJ N tw ' Jin' 7 a :I .i ' . 'I ' . .W f W-.L -fix V .W .fi 3 f 4..a-any ' QM.-Kf'1- X' , ' , ,- N -. y. v ' , '--1 ' - . 1 fi. L F' if A-, , 'sv we .in '- , Hr! '-- ..- '- 'Su f- Q ' rn -OW ,. ' x,rV . .ga :J I ' s. --P - mi :. -y ,. 3, Jr '5 . Q ' X, . , 1 - :N . . , Wf , . - ,- 5- . 4 f-' 3 ' - - 's :K N X J- V -- 'ff' t I