Harvard Hall is the signature room of the Harvard Club of New York City. It was designed by Charles McKim of McKim Mead & White in 1905 as part of the first addition to the original clubhouse. While the building is landmarked, the room is not, only because the Harvard Club is not a public building. In fact, Harvard Hall was considered by many architectural observers at the time to be the finest clubroom in the Western Hemisphere, if not the world. Construction work was last done on the room in the mid 60’s.

The design objective was to give Harvard Hall a ‘really good facelift’, to make the room less tired looking, and bring the it back to its original glory while removing all of the ad hoc light fixtures and memorabilia that had accumulated over the years. The room is used for many events ranging from dinners to lectures to performances to wine tastings and exhibitions that were not planned for in 1905; updating it technically to accommodate these activities in a natural fashion was also critical. The design approach was to accomplish this in a creative, organized and highly cost effective manner; the entire project was completed in 7 weeks.