Harvard Business School

Writing in his 1985 report to Harvard's President, Dean John McArthur explained Moshe Safdie's assignment and initial findings:

"In reviewing the original 1925 campus plan of McKim Mead & White, Safdie noted numerous architectural strengths, but one important oversight—the emergence of the automobile as the dominant means of approaching a campus which has its strongest orientation toward the Charles River and the rest of Harvard. Thus, the vast majority of those arriving at the Business School approach it not as pedestrians through its pleasantly scaled interlocking courtyards, but from an impersonal parking lot, across service driveways, past loading docks and the unfinished rear facade of Baker Library.

Safdie's updating of the master plan is intended to provide guidance that will ensure that possible future additions will complement and enhance the original plan, while meeting present and future needs."