Allston Burr '89, for whom the new General Education building was named, was chairman of the committee which aided the construction of Memorial Church. This prompted one graduate to say that the very fact that Burr helped in the building of the chapel shows clearly how he would have opposed the new hall.

Conant Avoids Issue

President Conant has remained aloof from all argument about modern architecture, although the Corporation on which he serves gave its approval to the plans.

At the dedication of the Graduate Center last October, Conant said "I will not discuss the aesthetic judgment of the Corporation." In December, however, he put the Harkness Commons on his Christmas cards. Speculation has begun over whether the Burr Lecture Hall will be on his next year's cards.

One member of the faculty felt that the outside appearance of the new building was only of secondary importance. "I am much more concerned with the interior of the new building than the exterior," stated I. Bernard Cohen '37, assistant professor of General Education. "The new building is much better suited to teaching and the needs of the students and is a necessity," he went on.

The four Natural Science professors are particularly in favor of the new building and stand to profit the most from it. The Burr Lecture Hall is designed particularly for "dramatic demonstration of laboratory experiments before classroom groups."

Sound-Proof Curtain

Two large lecture rooms and four conference rooms are all equipped for laboratory demonstrations. Between experiments, in the large lecture halls a sound-proof curtain can be drawn around the demonstration table.

Since the building was built "to implement the program in General Education with a particular emphasis on science courses," these Natural Science professors were in constant contact with the University authorities and the architects and had a great deal to say in the plans for the building.

However, several of the other General Education instructors stated that they were not at all acquainted with the new hall.

Also coming in for some criticism is the new Gordon McKay Applied Science Laboratory which is in modern design but is not as radically modern as Burr Hall.