Sarah Anderson

Sarah Anderson

My sketch representation of the Harvard campus differs dramatically as distance from the campus center increases. I began by drawing the Yard and Tercentary Theater meticulously, given that it’s the part of Harvard I am most familiar with, and the area that I feel is most central to student and academic life. As you move away from the yard, you can see more gridlike patterns – not necessarily because the reality is a grid, but because I had to rely on roads rather than buildings/landmarks to recreate the campus. The scale also increases as accuracy decreases, as I had to become more arbitrary with my drawings.

One notable point about my sketch compared to an actual map is that I drew the quad as a separate bubble. Because I mostly take the shuttle to and from the quad, I don’t have a good grasp on the orientation of the quad relative to the Yard/River. I also see it as an entirely separate location from the rest of the campus, which is why I encased it in a figurative and literal bubble.

Another distinguishing feature of my map is that I chose to only draw Harvard buildings. I felt that if I drew non-Harvard residential and commercial buildings, it would clutter the sketch with meaningless rectangles and draw focus from the more important structures.