The Common Spaces Steering Committee started with two Chairs—Dean Mostafavi and Professor Cohen—and somehow ended up with 476. In a university that prides itself on aesthetic preservation over centuries, this explosion of pastel has caused quite a sensation. The medley of eye-catching metal is the newest thing on campus since wireless Internet and Radcliffe girls, and, as with these predecessors, I am greatly pleased by the addition.
The colorful chairs offer something for everyone. For freshmen, they offer more human targets during Frisbee recreation. For upperclassmen, a seat to reflect with nostalgia on the good ol’ days. For tourists, a chance to stop and smell the manure. For performers, an audience. For squirrels, a playground. For voyeurs, a venue. For fat people, a break. Or a test of will power. And in the spring, they’ll offer perverts a 360 experience of Primal Scream…
The hippies can still sprawl across the lawn or rub up against a tree, but now all those people who wouldn’t otherwise plop down on the grass are appreciating the great outdoors. Even if the new chairs give only the illusion of a cohesive community, that’s better than a barren landscape of rush-in and rush-out.
The naysayers among us critique the chairs as tacky carnival props that cheapen the prestige of Harvard Yard antiquity. But those people clearly don’t realize that these fine pieces of art were modeled after those same butt-warmers found in the Jardin du Luxembourg of Paris. Hellooooo, if anything, the chairs heighten the elitist aura that we know and love.
In these tough economic times, it’s the little things that count. As long as Harvard doesn’t paint John Harvard’s chair to match, I’m all for such social innovation.
