Sabrina Yates

Sabrina Yates

Compared to the Google Maps image of Harvard’s campus, I think my depiction of Harvard Yard and the River houses is pretty accurate. I couldn't recall several names of streets, and didn’t accurately capture their curvature. However, I knew the general location and formation of most of the houses. My rendition of the athletic facilities was rather terrible, which I attribute to my general apathy toward college sports. The features of the campus and its surrounding areas that I recalled most readily were the restaurants and churches. I always admire the churches' architectural styles as I pass them, and I eat in restaurants way more frequently than a student with an all-inclusive meal plan ought to. Those are the spaces that, for me, define Harvard Square. I was surprised by how many gates there are at Harvard. We talked in section last week about how Harvard is a very curated space, even the ones considered “public” in legal terms. It makes sense that private spaces like the Yard would be enclosed in gates, but seeing it on paper makes it seem like such an exclusive (or rather selectively inclusive, because the Yard is overflowing with tourists who are willing to spend money on Harvard tours an souvenirs) space. Interestingly, the Quad doesn’t really have gates, presumably because it’s so removed from the rest of Harvard’s campus.