Redesign is approved for the Center for Government and International Studies

On Sept. 18, the Mid-Cambridge Neighborhood Conservation District Commission approved the redesign of Harvard’s new Center for Government and International Studies. Project architect Henry N. Cobb ’47, MAR ’49 created the substantially modified design in response to views expressed by commission members and other residents at earlier hearings.

The new center will unite members of the Department of Government in a single location, alongside research centers affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The center will comprise two four-story buildings of glass and terra cotta facing each other on Cambridge Street. (See rendering of the south view at left.) With faculty offices, classrooms, library and computer facilities, and a café, the center will foster formal and informal interactions among faculty and students. Sidney R. Knafel ’52, MBA ’54, chairman of the Overseers’ Visiting Committee to the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, launched the project with gifts totaling more than $15 million, and one of the center’s two buildings will be named in his honor.