Moshe Safdie

The Esplanade’s 30th anniversary is this year (2019). I had the good fortune to speak with the architect of our building, world-renowned Moshe Safdie who was recently awarded the International Wolf Prize ‘for a career motivated by the social concerns of architecture.’  Over a celebrated 50-year career, Safdie has explored the essential principles of socially responsible design as an architect, urban planner, educator, theorist, and author. 

A citizen of Israel, Canada and the United States, Moshe Safdie graduated from McGill University. After apprenticing with Louis I. Kahn in Philadelphia, Safdie returned to Montréal to oversee the master plan for the 1967 World Exhibition. In 1964 he established his own firm to realize Habitat ’67, an adaptation of his undergraduate thesis and a turning point in modern architecture.  His offices are in Somerville and his projects are all over the world. Check out his magnificent works on the Safdie Architects web site: https://www.safdiearchitects.com/

As he reminisced about his work on the Esplanade, he noted that our building is a direct descendant of the ground breaking Habitat ’67 with its stepping terraces, gardens, openness to the sun and adapted to the river. In fact, the Esplanade was the first project that was built in the spirit of Habitat since 1976. But, Moshe noted, “there have been quite a few after that.” And there certainly have been! 

Arthur Cohen, the developer of The Cohen Companies, chose the Esplanade’s site and contacted Moshe. They agreed that they had a unique site and needed to make the most of it with as many with river views (‘in the spirit of Habitat’) as possible.  But they were also dealing with the strict guidelines of Cambridge, limiting height, requiring brick construction, and a water table restricting below ground parking.  To deal with these limitations, they used brick ‘liberally on the city side’ and white precast concrete panels on the riverside. The lower ceilings in the units offered a way to stay within the height constraints and get as many units as possible in the two towers that terraced toward the water. The design disguises the above ground parking with housing units and a garden on the parking roof of the 4thlevel. From across the river, Moshe noted that the Esplanade looks like a “Greek island”. 

Moshe was pleased to learn that through our Newsletter we are building community and was generous with his time for an interview.  He noted that the Habitat now also has a Newsletter and sent me a copy.  In the bustling urban setting of Kendall Square, the Esplanade continues to offer the peace and spirit of the river, air, light, and the natural world, creating beauty or ‘fit’ with the setting as is reflected in his only published poem that he says “speaks for itself”*:

He who seeks truth shall find beauty.
He who seeks beauty shall find vanity.
He who seeks order shall find gratification.
He who seeks gratification shall be disappointed.
He who considers himself the servant of his fellow beings shall find the joy of self expression.
He who seeks self expression shall fall into the pit of arrogance.

Arrogance is incompatible with nature.

Through nature, the nature of the universe and the nature of man, we shall seek truth.

If we seek truth we shall find beauty.

We have found beauty here in the Esplanade and we look forward to celebrating its 30thAnniversary in the Fall!  Thank you, Moshe Safdie.

*Quoted from his bookMoshe I and his 2007 TED Talk.

 Jane Hilburt-Davis