Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts [SEP] architect
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts is the only building actually designed by Le Corbusier in the United States, and one of only two in the Americas (the other is the Curutchet House in La Plata, Argentina). Le Corbusier designed it with the collaboration of Chilean architect Guillermo Jullian de la Fuente at his 35 rue de Sèvres studio; the on-site preparation of the construction plans was handled by the office of Josep Lluís Sert,
a Harvard fundraising program. The project immediately elicited a response from Harvard alumnus Alfred St. Vrain Carpenter and his wife Helen Bundy Carpenter. The couple, whose son Harlow had just attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design, donated $1.5 million for the proposed design center. The donation propelled the project forward, and the Committee for the Practice of Visual Arts began to look for an architect to undertake the project. Originally, the committee had recommended that the building be designed by "a first rate American architect" who would be