It worked well. "The contractor and the architect should work together. You save time and money and have a better building," said Andrews. Changes which the contractor finds are necessary can then be made "without all the red tape that is usually involved." Andrews hopes Harvard will allow the same architect-contractor relationship, though he thinks the University will choose the more conventional course.

Andrews works closely not only with the contractor, but with educators (the 36-year-old Dean of Scarborough worked very closely with Andrews), sociologists, economists, and other specialists. System programming, according to Andrews, is the critical factor in reaching his goals of movement and communication. A typical application is to the circulation plan of people. With system programming, he says, the designer reaches, a rational decision on the number of elevators or the width of corridors for a building.

"The role of the architect," Andrews says, "is to synthesize all recommendations and studies of the specialists." After digesting all, Andrews designs and whatever happens with the outside "happens" according to Andrews.

Scarborough happens rather well both inside and out. His process of in-depth study, synthesis, and design combined with his office's use of "more bloody system programming and computer time" than any other firm in architecture-conscious Toronto.

Turned On

One former Harvard visual studies student wrote Andrews after seeing the college: "I was incredibly turned-on by your building. . . . What was really great about the buildings from the outside was that the whole time it felt like you were standing next to a real solid building . . . the shapes, angles, views, and turns never seems to dissolve into the gimmicky, tricky, inconsiderate, and condescending thing that seems to be the special danger of original or thought-out architecture."

She continued, "It was as if you had worked out the boldest simplest organizing of buildings in a rough clay model and then just made it big--losing none of the original strength and emphasis."

Some students complain of the lack of color and cozy spots. They feel that Andrews' attempt to provide common spaces to meet new people has worked very well, but there just isn't any place in the building where one could be alone with a few close friends.

Critics at Harvard thought Andrews to be turned-off to new trends in education and architecture. When they see Gund Hall they will probably be in for a surprise.