Harbus

Issue date: 2/26/07 Section: A&E

Media Credit: Brenda Vongova Exterior architecture of Shad Hall Fitness Center.

"Posh" is the adjective that best describes the lavish Shad Hall Fitness Center at the Harvard Business School. With its unadorned concrete column upholding a magnificent gilded capital in the entrance bay, Shad Hall Fitness is a metaphor for athletic muscle.

The building is magnificently posh, luxurious, lavish, and monstrous. Every amenity imaginable is offered, including hot tubs and saunas. In terms of functionality, the structure of the building is nearly perfect. Its architect placed immeasurable thought and creativity into every possible detail. The architecture itself is simple, symmetrical and solid, symbolizing the strength and integrity of the Harvard Business School. The following twelve facts about the architecture of this beloved building will entice you to pay a visit to the fitness center on a regular basis.

1. Shad Hall is considered one of the most beautiful works of architecture in Boston. In 1990, the building was awarded the Harleston Parke Medal by the Boston Society of Architects, the Oscar equivalent for Boston architects.

2. Shad Hall was built by the Bostonian firm, Kallmann, McKinnel & Wood Architects-the creators of Boston City Hall, Back Bay Station, and Hynes Convention Center. Both Gerhard Kallmann and Michael McKinnel taught at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

3. Architect Theodore Szostkowski was the principal designer of Shad Hall, and was a student of both Kallmann and McKinnel. He graduated from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1981.

4. The four-leveled building includes a gymnasium, a banked jogging track (at nine laps to the mile), five squash courts, four racquetball courts, two group fitness classrooms, a cycling studio, a Pilates/Yoga studio, a cardiovascular conditioning room, a strength conditioning room, two lockers rooms and an atrium.

5. Despite its massive size and extravagance, the Shad Hall architects were determined to keep the exterior design modest and simple in order to prevent it from overpowering its surroundings. The arcaded brick exterior on the lateral and back sides, for example, helps tone down the massiveness of the building in order to blend into the Harvard Business School environment.

6. The cardiovascular room on the second floor of Shad Hall was originally designed to be a pub. This room served as the temporary social center during the construction of the Spangler Hall student center. It additionally served as a study group and an interview room. This explains the pub-like atmosphere of the current cardio room with its walls decorated in glossy black and red oak paneling.

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