The Cult of The Link

Readers be warned. The author won't be obscuring, for the sake of journalistic objectivity, his passion for the subject of this article. The Link deserves oodles more praise than any impartial, lifeless news story could ever provide. From the rooftops (or, even better, from its rooftop), he will shout whooping praises for The Link, Harvard's most recent and most intriguing building project. Not often has one structure satisfied so many with such intelligent design.

The Link connects two science buildings, Mallinckrodt and Hoffman, and house offices and high-tech laboratories. It links two architectural eras and two related departments. A better reporter might subject the building to a hard-nosed critique, but this one, dear readers, treats it as a structure worthy of reverence. Call him crazy. Call this the Cult of The Link. Call it whatever; but first, get to know his totem.

Form and Function

From Oxford Street, The Link's limestone facadestrikes the passer-by as delightfully atypical,and its beige hue contrasts the abundant red brickof the buildings it connects. Set back from thestreet, its presence is subdued, yet sublime.

The Link's supple shape was what initiallyattracted this subjective--nay, thrilled--reporterto the scene. A deep archway is cut into therectangular, three-story building's center,allowing pedestrians unhindered access to thescience complex beyond and a glimpse into thelaboratories within. The passageway is long andwide and lined with glass. "Oxford Street is amajor circulation space," says Jim Collins, Jr.,the principal architect. "It seemed inappropriateto build a building that would wall off that wholelength."

Crowned by a geometric lattice, The Linkmanages to exploit the site, a negligible patch ofland between two mammoth buildings, to itsaesthetic potential. "In some places, buildingsthat link other buildings can be designed in a waythat helps define residual space or creates newspaces," says Collins. "If that's donesensitively, then those buildings can not onlyphysically link programs, but they can actuallybring a new amenity to the campus that didn'texist before."

The Philosophy of Linkage

More than a mere aesthetic wonder, The Linkaccomplishes two interrelated functions. Byconnecting Mallinckrodt and Hoffman physically, itjoins their two disciplines conceptually. Thecorridor that links the Chemistry Department toEarth and Planetary Sciences (EPS), then, is morethan just a walkway. It's an idea. The Link is onemomma step for science-kind.

Like MIT's Infinite Corridor, which connectshundreds of offices, labs, and classrooms, andseems to stretch forever, The Link connects anumber of science buildings in what we might callHarvard's 'Finite Corridor.' "One of the reasonsthat they wanted to put the physical link betweenHoffman and Mallinckrodt is that it gives us anuninterrupted physical path [indoors] from thefarthest reaches of Organismic and EvolutionaryBiology, through to the University Museum, the EPSdepartment, Chemistry, and all the way to theFairchild Biochemistry Building," says Alan Long,director of the chemical laboratories.

A New Home for Anderson

The Link will house three academic units: thescientific groups of James Anderson and CynthiaFriend, and another, still unnamed team on the topfloor.

Anderson, Weld Professor of AtmosphericChemistry, is main occupant of The Link. Tenuredin both Chemistry and EPS, he is renowned forairborne expeditions over Antarctica, where he andhis crew study atmospheric ozone levels. The grouphe oversees will occupy two floors. "One of thebiggest motivations for constructing The Link wasthat the major occupant, Jim Anderson, provides anintellectual link between the two departments,"says Long.

Jerry Connors, assistant director of thechemistry laboratories, says Anderson is the idealoccupant for The Link. "He's currently up thestreet [in the Engineering Sciences Laboratory]but he really belongs down here. It's where hiscolleagues are, where the students are, wherethere's more interaction. That's what this placeis about."

"There's a certain elegance of linking thedepartments through his research group," saysJeffrey Cushman, capital project manager for TheLink. Throughout the Faculty of Arts and Sciences,administrators are relocating their humancapital--artists and scientists alike. "One of thethings we are trying to do is rationalize thephysical locations of people in our departmentswho do similar things," says Long.

Prophecies

Until recently, most research and teaching wereconducted within discrete disciplines. Academicdepartments were mostly independent.

These days, universities are re-integratingtheir departments. And Harvard is leading the way.President Rudenstine seemed to have Link on thebrain when, during last spring's CommencementAddress, he discussed the University's plans torestructure. "Many of our specific proposals forHarvard's next decade are intendedto...consolidate and coordinate, to integrate, andto lower barriers between units whenever it isproductive and feasible to do so...The newfacilities will be designed to create--quiteliterally--physical as well as programmatic'bridges' between separate units."

High-Fidelity Architecture

The history of The Link reflects the slow,rational, studied pace typical of Universityprojects. Plenty of committees formed.

In the early 1980s, the University begananalyzing sites to determine optimal venues forexpanding research space. Seven years later, thecommittees selected the spot between theMallinckrodt and the Hoffman Laboratories. Then,in the spring of 1989, the University hired anarchitectural firm, Payette Associates, Inc., tobegin the design process. Construction began 17months ago and will wrap up, on schedule, in aboutfour weeks.

"It's not the type of project you can rush,"says Rick Kleber, the superintendent ofconstruction. Indeed, The Link's complicatedplacement and curious specifications madeconstruction a whopper of a challenge. "It's beena very interesting project--very intensemechanically," he says. And stressful. "Anytimeyou work between two fixed points, there's no roomto shift things."

According to Connors, The Link was developedafter a "long, long, long planning stage when theprofessors and designers got together." Becausethey conceived it from scratch, they were able toincorporate idiosyncratic research needs into thebuilding's basic structure. The designers spent agreat deal of time walking through the existinglabs, analyzing programs and interviewing thefuture occupants.

The building fits the scientists like an enzymefits its substrate. For example, an innovativeframe support, called a gantry, stretches over thecourtyard from Anderson's second-floor lab. Whenhis group builds a particularly hefty apparatusand needs to ship it out, they can place it in alarge box, open the wide doors, and lower it usingthe gantry onto a truckbed below. From there, thetruck drives it to the airport for its tripsouth--to Antarctica. A well-placed gantry is agodsend.

The architects also included holes in the wallsfor interconnecting equipment and special roomsfor storing the group's enormous boxes. An open-B-1