Mary Elizabeth van der Cross
(US)

Proposal for Harvard University's Science Center

Covering the Science Center at Harvard with a Gold Lame Sweater - Knitters Beautify the World!

The Science Center at Harvard University was designed by Design School Dean Josep Lluis Sert, and built in 1972. According to reports "Sert was Hurt" that visitors seemed to feel that the huge concrete building looked like ... a Polaroid Land camera. Despite Sert's protests, it was soon discovered that the funds for the building had, in fact, come from Edward Herbert Land who invented the land camera, but had not graduated from Harvard University.

My mother worked in the building next to the Science Center for more than twenty years. I walked by the Science Center every day and discovered first that it was the ugliest building that I had ever seen and then it dawned on me that it looked like an old land camera (something no
building would wish to resemble). Harvard has done several renovation projects to try to hide the building's instant photo roots, but they have not been successful.

When Mary Sherman approached me about a site to fix in Cambridge, I saw the chance to fulfill my daily hope that someone would do something ... and chose to redecorate by putting together a team of 750 knitters who would knit all day long for about five years to make a Gold Lame Sweater for
the Science Center. Besides being a send up to Christo, we anticipate that there will be unexpected goods that will come from the knitters' appearance on campus.

First, we will teach all Harvard student (both young men and women) and the cross-registered students from MIT how to knit. Faculty and their spouses will drop in to join us as speakers give talks on art, music, science and philosophy as we knit. The Cambridge community will begin
to join us ... and then together the knitters will come up with a plan for world peace.