Humanities Center TAKES SHAPE

To those who graduated in the 20th century, it will be known forever as the Freshman Union, where all first-years went three times per day to eat their meals and chat with their classmates.

But as Harvard enters the 21st century, the University has pulled the building along with it, sacrificing the architectural glory of the past for the promises of the future.

When the Barker Center for the Humanities opens in the spring, it will house most of the humanities departments, including offices for 100 faculty members, seminar rooms and even a cafe.

A recent tour through the nearly-completed building with Dean of the Faculty Jeremy Knowles reveals the depths to which the University has gone to maintain the old Union's feel.

The controversial Great Hall is now partitioned into two seminar rooms and an impressive atrium. A glass-walled hallway will divide the space, while original wood panelling still covers the walls of the seminar rooms. The giant fireplaces on both walls look even more imposing within the smaller confines.

The atrium, which features an open staircase running from the basement to the skylit ceiling, provides a centralized, airy meeting place for students and faculty.

Outside the Barker Center's imposing central space, most of the building is divided into well-lit, conveniently organized departmental offices, lounges and reception areas with large windows overlooking Cambridge.

The second floor overlooks the new copper roof of the rotunda, shining in the light of the setting sun.

Climbing the soon-to-be-carpeted fire-escape staircases to the third floor, the dark rooms are illuminated by "home-plate" shaped windows which peer towards the ivory towers of Dunster and Lowell.

Finally, the fourth floor, which will house the Religion Department, is characterized by a large skylight-covered ceiling and a seminar room with cathedral ceilings.

The ground floor, or "garden level" of the Barker Center, is lined with offices and lockers for graduate students, replacing the seldom-used recreational room of the Union.

The Union's refurbishment touched off protests by alumni last year, who demanded it instead be preserved as a historical site.

Great care was taken to uncover the building's history during the renovation process. Ancient wall panels that could not remain in their original locations will be reused in other areas. Large, picturesque beams, now exposed to the light, and slanting ceilings give the building a distinctive character evocative of its past.

In the adjoining Burr Hall, a library for the African-American Studies Department conveniently opens onto a balcony overlooking the entrance of the Barker Center, with its new handicap-access ramp.

A white fenced cupola--strikingly picturesque beside the postmodern architecture of the Carpenter Center--is perched atop the center.