The chapel at the Harvard Business School was a gift to the School from the MBA Class of 1959.
Harvard Business School Class of 1959 Chapel, Allston
While the school was founded in 1908 as the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and the current campus was constructed in 1924, there was no chapel until 1992 when this chapel opened.
Designed by prominent architect Moshe Safdie and Associates, this non-denominational chapel includes a cylindrical main building clad in green patinated, and adjacent glass pyramid as well as a “sun clock” tower outside designed by German artist Karl Schlamminger. A chamber organ designed by Taylor & Boody Organbuilders was added to the chapel in 1997.
Quiet and peaceful, the chapel is filled with natural light; water streams through the lush indoor garden adjacent to the sanctuary itself. The building is open Monday through Friday as a place of respite for students, faculty and staff – there are no scheduled services. Weddings, memorial services and musical performances take place in the chapel on occasion, but it functions primarily as a place for meditation and quiet reflection on the busy Harvard campus. In 2015, a 900sf sedum green roof was installed on the building.
Funds for the chapel were donated by the Class of 1959 at their 25th and 30th reunions in honor of their classmate Harvard Dean John H. McArthur who had proposed that a chapel on campus would enhance community. As the inscription on the wall of the chapel explains, the purpose of this spiritual site is to “make our community complete and remind us of our higher purpose and ideals.”
