Studio Gang-Designed 'Treehouse' Opens at Harvard

Although the aptly named David Rubenstein Treehouse is Harvard's first mass timber building, it is just the latest exploration in wood from the international architecture and urban design firm led by Jeanne Gang. A decade ago, Gang and company used cordwood, a traditional yet obscure masonry technique made from cut logs, at the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. More recently, the firm added two mass timber pavilions to the California College of the Arts campus in San Francisco. The 55,000-square-foot David Rubenstein Treehouse at Harvard University takes Gang's timber proclivity another step, supporting the three-story building with a branching, tree-like mass timber structure and using natural wood finishes throughout. The most striking space, as seen above, is the two-story atrium, where stairs wrap two elevators to make visitors feel like they are ascending a treehouse.

With convening being its purpose, the Rubinstein Treehouse consists of six various-sized meeting rooms on the second floor and the large “Canopy Hall” on the third floor, adjoining an open-air terrace that provides views of the city over the newly planted trees surrounding the building. The use of healthier, low-carbon wood is not the building's only sustainable strategy. Among other additional features, rooftop PVs and a connection to Harvard's District Energy Facility reduce fossil fuel consumption, while the building and its adjacent SCAPE-designed landscape retain and reuse rainwater. The building is targeting Petal Certification as part of the Living Building Challenge.