Art: Economy at Harvard

In Architect Walter Gropius’ 15 years at Harvard, the Graduate School of Design has risen to No. 1 rank among U.S. architectural schools, in part at least because of Walter Gropius (TIME, Jan. 21). He was renowned as the founder of Germany’s famed Bauhaus school, and youngsters for whom the words Gropius and Bauhaus meant crisp, challenging modernism followed him to Harvard. There, amid the pink & white Georgian of the Yard, he and his collaborators built a modern brick and glass graduate center. But for the most part, Gropius built little, was content to be a teacher, one of the three division chiefs in the School of Design, and a pervasive influence. Last month Harvard decided that rising costs required the elimination of Gropius’ pet course in design for first-year students and a reduction in his staff of ten assistants. Last week, a little tired at 69, Walter Gropius quietly let it be known that he had resigned, and that Harvard had accepted his resignation.