Harvard Science Center

By the time of the scheduled demolition, a commune of students and "street people" calling themselves the "Free University" had taken residence in the unused building.

Architectural historian Bainbridge Bunting wrote that this was the "most important improvement in Cambridge since the construction of [what would later be called] Memorial Drive in the 1890s".

[5][12][13] A room-sized historic electromechanical computer built in 1944, the Harvard Mark I, was displayed on the ground floor next to the central stairwell in the main lobby of the building (it has since been moved to the Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) in Allston, Massachusetts).

Other facilities include:[15] Secreted beneath the Science Center itself and its courtyard (and largely unknown those who work and study at Harvard) is a "gargantuan" chilled water plant, "a magnificent Piranesi-like interior with the volume of Boston's Symphony Hall"[1] providing cooling to many Harvard buildings from the Science Center northward.

[18] The building itself was first opened around the time of the 1973 oil crisis, and was plagued with huge energy costs, temperature control problems, and roof leaks for decades.