Harvard Law School - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

Page 16 text:

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

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 17 text:

to be found in this country. Richardson was best known, however, for the exterior of his buildings, and, as well done as the interior of Austin is, it is the outside of the building that is the most striking. Austin Hall is a masonry building, that is, the whole weight of the building is borne by the stone and mortar of its walls without the aid of a supporting skeleton of steel or reinforced concrete. The walls of such a building are necessarily quite thick, and, in Austin Hall, Richardson re- emphasizes this massiveness in his exterior design. The walls are made of dark Longmeadow stone placed upon a sandstone base, and they are obviously stone. There is no attempt to hide their solid nature in the creation of abstract geometric plains, rather, Richardson creates a cliff face. This massiveness is reasserted in the triple arches of the main entrance, dark cave openings whose solid sides are, if any- thing, overly eloquent of the burden they carry. The rear of Austin Hall is simple, but carefully proportioned, the building was designed to be seen from all sides, an isolated jewel set upon what was then an open field. The rear and the front are punctuated with rectangular windows cut into the walls as though chisled by some giant hand. The two smaller lecture rooms are lighted by a row of windows set high in their walls at the front and rear of the building. The windows are evenly spaced and separated by mini-columns. Ther ribbon-like effect of these high windows was apparently one that Richardson was fond ofg he had used an almost identical design earlier for the Crane Memorial Library in Quincy. At the main entrance of Austin Hall, Richardson created on the capitals of the columns supporting the arches some of his most delightful ornamental sculpture. He must have taken a special pleasure in the thought of generations of intense, serious law students passing by wrapped in their own This coiled snake found on Auslin's L- rf ar ,. k is V - Q 1 .X . 1 ,+- b n f Q X xt ,A W f-P-53 is one of Iwo stair tower. A A Q I., -f ' sr Yi f his if W-4 r 7.1 ,fy 4,31 , I ft! 4, l ajax A '?7f'Q , A !:'frii'Q'Q ' g ... x fir-if