After Facelift, Baker Reopens for Business

Complete with marble floors, plasma televisions, and professional resources, Harvard Business School (HBS) officially reopened Baker Library on Monday.

The library, named after New York banker George F. Baker, who provided the original $5 million to construct the library, was closed to make way for major renovations in 2003.

The renovations, which cost $53.4 million, have modernized the library and added 38,000 square feet, according to a press release from HBS.

“It was time for a facelift,” said Sharon C. Black, director of planning at HBS. Black noted that the original structure lacked air conditioning and wheelchair access in the stacks.

In addition to these changes, Baker now has new mechanical systems as well as concealed cable wiring.

Two new climate-controlled subterranean floors have also been added to accommodate the 600,000 volumes in Baker Library’s open stacks. The addition will allow for faculty offices, meeting rooms, and public space above ground.

“In restoring and updating the building, we have strengthened its role as a forum for the exchange of ideas while providing an ideal setting for creating the library of the future,” HBS Dean Jay O. Light said in the release.

The library staff played an active role in the development of the Baker Exchange, a public space situated in the ground floor lobby of the south side of the building. It is designed to encourage HBS students to gather and discuss real-time developments in the business world. The area has been equipped with 19 daily international newspapers and two banks of four 42-inch plasma screen televisions playing up-to-the-minute financial news. The area also contains Bloomberg Professional terminals, which are commonly used by financial firms to perform market research.

According to Elizabeth A. Bibby, director of curriculum services at Baker Library, HBS is the only business school with the professional version of the machines.

“We see [the Baker Exchange] as part of the mission not just to teach students how to do research but...to help them understand how they will use that information in the business world and how that information has value,” said Bibby, whose unit oversees the operation of the Baker Exchange.

The renovation has also provided physical improvements to the overall facade of the building.

Free of scaffolding, the classic front entry to the building—which faces the Charles River and is visible from the College campus—has been renovated to emphasize its architectural nuances.

The renovations have also placed a greater emphasis on the south facade of the library, which faces Allston. Before the renovations, the south facade did not have a back door and was only used as a service entrance. The University’s imminent expansion into Allston has prompted them to construct a welcoming facade on that side of the campus.

“Given the university’s future development on the Allston side of the river it is very beneficial for us to have this presence,” Black said.

—Staff writer Alexander H. Greeley can be reached at agreeley@fas.harvard.edu.