In its more than 100-year history, Swartz Hall had never gone through a major renovation. While that meant its historic features and unique design (it is the only instance of Collegiate Gothic architecture at Harvard) were preserved, it also meant that its current functionality did not meet future needs.

One of the School’s main questions during planning for the current renewal was how do we maintain the former while changing the latter. In this post I want to offer some insight into how we are preserving the historical character of Swartz Hall while reorienting it to be...

The renewal of a century-old building encompasses some big changes. There’s the overhaul of the building’s electrical, plumbing, and climate control systems, the remodeling of entire floors, and, for our project, the buildout of a 3,200 square-foot addition.

But it’s the smaller items that can have just as big of an impact.

This week I wanted to highlight for you how we are thinking about Swartz Hall’s effect on the health of the people who will be working, learning, and visiting it.

Although construction work on Swartz Hall has been underway since the end of May, an intimate, celebratory groundbreaking ceremony was held earlier this month to commemorate the start of the building’s renewal.

I wanted to share some pictures of this month’s groundbreaking with you and let everyone know that a community-wide celebration is being planned for when the project is finished and Swartz Hall is ready to open.

Speaking during the ceremony were Dean David Hempton, donor Susan Shallcross Swartz, Harvard President Larry Bacow, project architect Philip Chen,...

Now that the academic year is underway there’s a lot of activity on campus—and I’m not just talking about the construction for the Swartz Hall renewal.

Weekly events such as Community Tea and Noon Service kicked off last week, and the School’s first major event of the academic year—Convocation—was an inspiring celebration of the life and work of Toni Morrison.

Beginning this semester...

Orientation takes place next week and that also means the fall semester is about to begin. With many physical changes happening on our campus over the summer, I wanted to share with you in this post several floor plans that can be helpful to illustrate how Divinity Hall and our new, temporary space at 60 Oxford Street have been reconfigured. The directory and all floor plans can be found on the HDS intranet.

The space at 60 Oxford Street will be...

We’re in the thick of summer and we’re in the thick of demolition as well.

Inside and around Swartz Hall, crews continue to be busy with demolition and abatement work. Demolition work is not typically like what’s depicted on reality home-improvement shows. Safe and efficient demolition requires careful planning, lots of coordination, and oftentimes methodical work.

A lot of progress has been made on the ground floor of Swartz Hall. Crews were in there this week knocking down steel framing and carefully...

Here we are about to close out July and head into August. It’s hard to believe that new and returning students will be back on campus in just about four weeks.

While there has been much work and activity taking place at Swartz Hall, there has also been significant effort to ready our temporary office and classroom space at 60 Oxford Street ahead of the fall semester. Classrooms are progressing, as you can see from the pictures I’ve included below. The focus the last couple of weeks has been installing audio/visual equipment. There are...

There’s been quite a lot of activity taking place this week around Swartz Hall. You may have noticed that the cloister link is now nearly gone. Demolition began this week with crews using an excavator to remove the structure so work preparing that area for the new addition can begin. Demolition took several days as crews worked carefully to remove the cloister link, which was attached to the original building.

The work was impressive, and I’ve included several pictures below so you can get a sense of how it took place. You can see workers using water and a sprayer to help with...

Let’s start off this entry with some amazing statistics about the Swartz Hall renewal project: 715 boxes and 18,000 books.

This is how many books faculty members and Andover-Harvard Theological Library donated to Better World Books. The social enterprise organization collects and sells books online, and funds literacy initiatives worldwide. Since its founding in 2003, it has diverted more than 250,000 tons of books from landfills....

Prep work continues as we prepare for the Swartz Hall renewal. Crews are busy installing safety measures in and around the building, including lighting, signage, and fire alarms. Landscape work is also underway. While it may not have been as visible as the work happening on site now, preparation for this renewal has actually been taking place for some time.

I’m excited about the changes to come: the new multifaith space, modernized classrooms, enhanced collaborative areas, better accessibility, and improved carbon footprint. But I also realize that these incredible...

I’d like to start this update by thanking everyone who was involved with the move out of Swartz Hall and the relocation of offices. It was no small task. Everyone is now settling into their new offices. Thanks especially to those who organized the recent 60 Oxford Street breakfast and Divinity Hall lunch events as everyone gets to know their new buildings.

Over the past couple weeks, crews have been hard at work assembling and prepping on site. This update includes details of work that is expected to be conducted in and around Swartz Hall over the next two weeks. Please note...

After years of imagining, discussing, designing, and planning, the renewal of historic, century-old Swartz Hall took a big step forward this week. The relocation of departments and offices are a major milestone for the project as it will allow for the renewal to take place as efficiently as possible.

Months of packing, purging, and preparation for the end-of-semester move—and the move itself—have taken a considerable amount of work. But now, HDS is significantly closer to beginning the renewal of its signature building, creating a true campus center and a space that will...

New Name for Andover Hall

As Harvard Divinity School prepares for the most significant renewal of the HDS campus in a century, Dean David N. Hempton announced on May 1 that Andover Hall will be renamed Swartz Hall in honor of Susan Shallcross Swartz, her husband, James R. Swartz, and their family.

“For a decade now, Susan and Jim have been our partners in strengthening every aspect of Harvard Divinity School,” said Hempton. “From day one, their priority has been focused on the student experience, whether funding scholarships for students with need, professorships...

Planning continues for a renewal of historic Andover Hall, the first comprehensive renovation since the building was constructed in 1911. The project will create new program space that will advance the HDS academic mission including new, inclusive multifaith space, modernized, state-of-the-art classrooms, flexible pedagogical spaces, and enhanced collaborative areas. It will also improve the building’s vital life safety systems, address accessibility issues, and significantly improve the building’s carbon footprint by incorporating many sustainable elements.

Red oak tree...