Word: gsd
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Following Sert's departure amidst campus protests in 1969, the GSD entered a period of relative quiet, marked only by the move from Robinson to Gund Hall. Ironically, in later years Gund would gain the reputation as "the worst designed building on campus," after a series of leakage problems caused by inadequate maintenance and, yes, poor design...
Though the GSD only occupies one building, its spirit might be said to extend to many others on campus and in the area. In addition to Sert's work, the Countway Medical Library, Loeb Drama Center, and Pusey Library were all designed by Hugh Stubbins, Jr. (MAR '35). Even the controversial $52,000 Johnston Gatehouse was farmed out to a GSD grad, Graham Gund (MAR '68). In Boston, GSD buildings include the Federal Reserve Bank (Stubbins), Boston City Hall (Professors of Architecture Gerhard M. Kallmann and Noel M. McKinnell), and the John Hancock Tower (Professor of Architecture Harry N. Cobb...
Perhaps the GSD's most significant contribution has been by way of example. When the GSD was founded, American buildings were primarily done in the Beaux Arts style, a mish-mash of the architectural conventions of the past. Working architects were well aware of the International Style, thanks largely to the efforts of the Museum of Modern Art. Nevertheless, there was considerable resistance to it, both by clients and architects unfamiliar with the style, and unimpressed by what they had seen...
...aura of Harvard's architecture department silenced many doubters of these bare and square designs. The GSD was the ideal platform for the polemically inclined Gropius to promote the ideals of the Bauhaus. As it has done in many other fields, Harvard provided the official stamp of approval that helped make a revolutionary doctrine palatable to conservative American tastes...
...reorganization and modernization of the architecture program, begun before the GSD was founded and culminating in Gropius's not entirely successful "Bauhausization" of the curriculum, provided the model for teaching architecture in the post-war period. Even if one studied architecture somewhere other than Harvard, one still learned the principles Harvard taught, the way Harvard taught them...