Peabody Terrace Graduate Student Housing was designed in the 1960s by José Luis Sert, then Dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Today, the high-rise towers are important examples of poured-in-place reinforced concrete modernist design; architects from around the world come to study the iconic housing complex.

Thirty years of unfortunate maintenance decisions had left the towers in desperate need of repair and modernization. Exterior work included repairs to the concrete envelope, com...