Bulfinch Magic

Architect Charles Bulfinch performed a death-defying feat in University Hall 188 years ago. He caused to be built a staircase of heavy granite, tons of it, that would float in space, supported (presumably) by its own interlocking steps. In fact, nobody knows how the stairs (pictured below) are suspended. And though University Hall has just undergone a $10-million renovation, the secret remains just that: an architectural sleight of hand.

The renovations just completed are a modern version of the same kind of magic: this time, architects Bruner/Cott & Associates were charged with the job of installing a handicapped ramp, an elevator, and two lifts in the Hall, and with making all other accretions of modernity, such as the wires, sprinklers, lights, and pipes that snaked along the ground floor corridors (bottom right), disappear. The Faculty Room (above), originally designed to serve as the University Chapel, had several reincarnations before acquiring its present function. The restoration there brings the space back to the green-and-tan color scheme of 1896, and to that era’s wood floors and Oriental carpets. Later this year, thanks to faculty members Dudley and Georgene Herschbach, a portrait of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, the first woman to gain tenure in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences through promotion, will be unveiled, bringing the number of portraits of women in the room to a grand total of two. "Presto, change-o" it’s not; reaching parity on those walls will take some real magic—and no small measure of time.