Building Overviews: Harkness and Gropius

Designed by Walter Gropius, founder of the Bahaus School in Germany and later head of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Harkness Commons is the student center. The terrace level includes a coffee shop as well as an indoor and outdoor social and study spaces.

Connected to Harkness by covered walkways are seven dormitory buildings, five of which belong to the Law School. The dorms are named for Harvard graduates whose careers had significant impact on the development of American law: Ames, named for James Barr Ames, the second Law School dean; Dane, for Nathan Dane, an early benefactor of HLS; Holmes, named for professor and Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.; Shaw, for former Massachusetts Supreme Court Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw; and Story, commemorating Supreme Court Justice and HLS professor Joseph Story. While these buildings predominantly house law students, graduate students from other Harvard schools also reside here as well as residents participating in various Harvard summer programs.