Last year, Harvard University Graduate School of Design student John Wang (AB ’16, MArch ’21) won the Radcliffe Institute’s 2016 Public Art Competition with a project entitled “100+ Years at 73 Brattle,” making him the first undergraduate student to win the biennial contest. The installation was constructed this past summer and recently opened in Radcliffe Yard’s Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Garden.
“100+ Years at 73 Brattle” features a wooden ramp surrounded by plants and a zigzagging wall of concrete bricks. The installation takes it shape from the footprints of three buildings that once occupied the space.
“I think the sense that something used to be here that’s no longer here really came across to me … I wanted to explore that,” Wang told the Harvard Gazette.
Wang’s design was selected from more than 40 submissions from undergraduate and graduate students at Harvard entering the third Radcliffe Institute Public Art Competition. The previous two winning projects were both designed by GSD students: “Latent (e)Scapes” by Christina Geros (MAUD ’15, MLA ’15) in 2015; and “Saturate the Moment” by Keojin Jin (MDes ’14) and Juhun Lee (MDes ’14), the competition’s inaugural installation, unveiled in October 2013.
Before joining the GSD this fall, Wang studied at Harvard College where he pursued Architectural Studies, a track within the History of Art and Architecture concentration that is jointly administered with the GSD.
“100+ Years at 73 Brattle” will remain on view through 2019. Registration for the fourth round of the Radcliffe Institute Public Art Competition is now open.
Read the Harvard Gazette’s coverage, as well as an interview with Wang on the project in the Harvard Crimson.