Description

Aerial view of Cambridge Campus, architectural rendering, view from river, 1913. Stamp on verso reads "Mass. Tech. Press Agent -- Release Nov 8 1913 P.M." Original caption: "Bird's Eye from above Harvard Bridge".

Bird's Eye view of the New Campus by W. Welles Bosworth 1913

Watercolor on paper

Dimensions 32" x 65"

In 1909, MIT's sixth president, Richard Cockburn Maclaurin and the members of the MIT Corporation made the decision to leave Back Bay Boston campus for their new Cambridge site. The Institute turned to its faculty and graduates to design its buildings.

In early 1913, William Welles Bosworth, '89, was chosen as architect. His plan -- to combine neoclassical appearance with a flexible arrangement of individual yet interconnected buildings centered on courts -- was an ingenious scheme to permit circulation through interior corridors and to allow for future expansion. The central rotunda dominated a great court reminiscent of Jefferson's plan for the University of Virginia.

Bosworth was so pleased with his design than he built a minature replica of it as his home near Paris. Some features of his design were never realized -- not long before his death in 1966 at the age of 97, he was still advocating for the installation of a 50 foot statue of Minerva which can be seen here in his proposal.

The original drawing is housed at the MIT Museum.