[Part 2 of the Beantown architecture highlights, which I will try to finish before I start work (work!) on Monday.]

If you ask the Germans they will tell you God is in the details. If you ask the Mexicans, they will say the Devil is in the details. Either way (or maybe both are right?), the details are key. Moneo--that modern minimalist--understands this, of course. (Hey, JK, how's that detailing going?) Detailing an entire building is a huge undertaking, but the details speak about the building, the people who made it, and the people who inhabit it in an intimate way that form can only hint at. The architects that understand this are the ones who I admire the most.

Moneo's LISE (Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering) at Harvard (just around the corner from the GSD) has just been finished (or at least occupied--I'm sure there's still a punch list a mile long). I didn't have time to go in (cue lecture on inside-out v. outside-in design), but there's a lot to be learned from the exterior facade.



The plane of glass wraps into the existing building on the left, and underneath the raised labs, paths are carved out, responding to the nearby paths of good ole Hah-vad Yahd:


The framed glass floats off of the more sturdy feeling concrete:


When things almost touch but don't quite, they create an even more powerful connection to the ground:


Some details could be a little more finished:



As I reacall from D (the project architect for LISE) talking to us a couple of years ago, there are all kinds of cool science things inside, including a siesmically isolated lab. Also, those giant concrete piers are actually hollow and let light into the underground spaces. Sometime I'll go back and peek inside...