Walter Gropius: German architect, Founder of the Bauhaus movement, designer of Harvard Law School dormitory complex named in his honor, the butt of many a pun involving the first syllable of his last name…the list goes on and on.
Three weeks into living in the Gropius dorms, I’m starting to understand why these dorms are still standing. Sure, there’s the argument that Harvard can’t tear them down because they’re a historic landmark (this is true, any tour guide worth her salt will tell you they were the first example of modernist architecture on an American college campus), but I’m starting to appreciate them for far more than that.
Rewind to move-in day. Admittedly, I wasn’t thrilled to be living in dorms again. Although I came to law school straight from undergrad, I had lived in apartments for the last two years, and wasn’t ready to relinquish the luxuries of private kitchens and comfy couches. What’s more, I was lucky enough in undergrad that I never had to use a bathroom that was not directly connected to my bedroom. It literally took me ten minutes to figure out how to take a shower without having to run down the hall naked.
Today, though, I’m actually thankful for all the amenities I share with my fellow hallmates. When I wander to the kitchen to microwave a frozen meal for dinner, I get to speak with one of my new friends, an LLM student from China, about how Chinese law differs from its American counterpart. When I leave my door open while reading, I get invited to spontaneous games of freeze tag on the quad. When I have a question about how to deal with a particularly confusing professor, I knock on my neighbor’s door, a 3L who had him during his own 1L year. Dorm life can be frustrating, but its rewards far outweigh those burdens.
