Harvard Magazine speaks with Laurence Holland about KPMB’s Crimson renovation

October 2, 2026

In the September-October issue of Harvard Magazine, student journalist Kate Kaufman writes about the changing nature of the workplace, drawing on her experience with the recently renovated home of The Harvard Crimson.

In 2026, KPMB renovated the undergraduate newspaper’s historic offices at 14 Plympton Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The project modernized the Crimson’s newsroom and workspaces, reimagined its basement pressroom as a flexible space for working and socializing, and inserted a rooftop addition that enables the building to meet modern accessibility standards for the first time.

Kaufman spoke with KPMB associate Laurence Holland, who served as project manager for the renovation and was an editor of the Crimson as an undergraduate. His familiarity with the building helped shape its renewal for a new generation of student journalists.

As Kaufman writes, “During the brainstorming phase of 14P’s redesign, Holland told me, the possibility was floated to sell the building entirely. What need did student journalists still have for a physical space? But the idea was never taken very seriously, he said, in part because alumni recognize the Crimson as not just a workspace but also an educational facility and a social club.”

“When designing 14P’s upgrade, [Holland and KPMB] leaned into the Crimson’s triple purpose. Nearly half the newsroom is now couches instead of desks. The basement, once dominated by a massive, defunct press from the days when the newspaper printed six days a week in-house, has been cleared out to make room for a ping pong table, a TV nook, and a flexible workspace that converts to a party locale.”

Read the full column at Harvard Magazine.

(Header image: Merrill Shea)