Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan had just arrived as the new Dean of Harvard Law School when she proposed a nearly impossible task. Could a new courtyard, she asked, be designed and built before the students returned in September (only 12 weeks away)? The site at the heart of the campus was criss-crossed by underground tunnels and sewers already slated for repair over the summer. Halvorson Design took up Dean Kagan's challenge, designing and coordinating an elegant new gathering space that was finished by August 15. The new plaza became instantly popular, leading the Law School to engage Halvorson Design as landscape architects for a series of projects, including Jarvis Field and the major new expansion designed by Robert A.M. Stern Associates at the Northwest Corner of the campus.