Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
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The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts is the only building actually built by Le Corbusier in the United States, one of only two in the Americas. (The other is the Curutchet House in La Plata, Argentina.) Built in 1962, Le Corbusier had designed it at his atelier in Paris, along with Chilean architect Guillermo Jullian de la Fuente. The on-site preparation of the construction plans was handled by the office of José Luis Sert, the dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He had formerly been a student of Le Corbusier and had been instrumental in winning him the commission.
The building was made possible by a $1,500,000 donation by the Carpenters, who never met the architect; in the end they had to increase their donation to meet increased building costs.
It houses the department of Visual and Environmental Studies of the University, as well as the Harvard Film Archive, the largest collection of 35mm films in New England. It screens a large quantity of independent, international and silent films.
Le Corbusier never saw the building. He was invited to the opening ceremony, but he declined the invitation on account of his poor health.
The building has been humorously described by some people skeptical of its charms as "two pianos mating."
External links
- Photos (http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/carpentercenter/index.htm)
- Harvard Film Archive (http://harvardfilmarchive.org/)
- Research on the Carpenter Center (http://www.archlab.tuwien.ac.at/~carpent/carpenter/carpenter.html)