History
In early 2008, President Faust assembled the Steering Committee on Common Spaces and charged the group with guiding a planning initiative that would lead to the transformation of certain physical spaces so they support and enhance our sense of engagement and community with a goal to provide spaces that draw people together for work or pleasure in a spontaneous and informal way.
The committee's feasibility study explored ways to develop campus gathering places, program the spaces, complement existing activities, encourage people to meet and linger, and ensure that improvements were accessible, visible, and memorable. A number of key opportunities from the study were developed to create a more welcoming and integrated campus including the introduction of the Luxembourg Garden chairs in Harvard Yard in 2009, a seating and shade structure at Dudley House, The Porch at Memorial Church, and the Plaza in 2013.
The Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center opened in the fall of 2018 as a dynamic center of University life, enabling the greater Harvard community to come together in new exciting ways.
Common Spaces oversees these spaces, programming events with partners from across the University, and facilitating activities that foster connection, nourish a sense of place, and inspire new encounters.
Steering Committee on Common Spaces, 2008-2010
| Lizabeth Cohen (Co-Chair) | Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies |
| Mohsen Mostafavi (Co-Chair) | Dean of the Graduate School of Design and Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor of Design |
| Homi Bhabha | Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Director of the Humanities Center, Senior Advisor on the Humanities to the President and Provost at Harvard University |
| Allan Brandt | Amalie Moses Kass Professor of the History of Medicine and Professor of the History of Science |
| William Fitzsimmons | Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, Harvard College |
| Andrea R. Flores* | Undergraduate Representative, Currier House, Class of 2010 |
| Gerald Frug | Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law, Harvard Law School |
| Howard Georgi | Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics, Harvard College; Master of Leverett House |
| Brian Goldstein* | GSAS Representative |
| Evelynn Hammonds | Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard College |
| Jerold Kayden | Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design, Graduate School of Design |
| Alex Krieger | Professor in Practice of Urban Design, Graduate School of Design |
| Michele Lamont | Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies, Faculty of Arts and Sciences |
| Silvia Lizarraga* | Graduate Student Representative |
| Jason McCoy* | 2008-2009 Fellow for Campus Life |
| Jackie O’Neill | University Marshall |
| Robert Scalise | John D. Nichols ’53 Family Director of Athletics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences |
| Brett Sweet* | Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences |
| Pallas Snider* | Undergraduate Representative, Leverett/Dunster, Class of 2010 |
| Diana Sorensen | James F. Rothenberg Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts and Sciences |
| Peter Tufano* | Former Sylvan C. Coleman Professor of Financial Management, Harvard Business School |
| Clayton Spencer* (ex officio) | Vice President for Policy |
| Sally Zeckhauser* (ex officio) | Vice President for Administratoin |
| Tanya Iatridis (Project Director) | Senior Director of University Planning |
*No longer at Harvard University