Laurence Holland explores Harvard Crimson renovation for GB&D Magazine
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June 10, 2026
At Green Building & Design Magazine (GB&D), associate Laurence Holland charts KPMB’s recent renovation of The Harvard Crimson’s historic home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Beginning in 2024, KPMB embarked on a comprehensive update of the undergraduate student newspaper’s offices. Key goals included supporting the newspaper’s transition towards a digital-first publishing model and restarting a culture of in-person collaboration.
Prior to completing a Master of Architecture at the University of Virginia, Laurence was an editor of The Harvard Crimson for four years while an undergraduate student at Harvard College.
“Deep familiarity with an institution’s DNA is an asset for any architect, but how The Crimson operates today is markedly different than when I was an editor during the late 2000s,” writes Laurence in Green Building & Design.
The renovation has redefined many of the historic building’s key spaces. The basement pressroom, which housed printing presses for decades, has been updated to serve new needs in an era of multi-media journalism. The main newsroom now enjoys an improved user experience, while a new rooftop pavilion enables barrier-free access to the building’s second-storey ceremonial space for the first time.
“In architecture, it’s often said that the ‘greenest building is the one that already exists,’ and for The Crimson the central design challenge was to extend the life and utility of the building with only limited demolition and new construction.”
KPMB has significant experience supporting media organizations as they navigate the ever-evolving world of modern journalism. In 2017, KPMB designed a new home for The Globe & Mail in Toronto, which supported a fluid working model aligned with modern journalistic practice.
Read Laurence’s full article at Green Building & Design Magazine.
(Image: Kian Tang)
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