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Architectural
tour of campus
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The Stata Center web page (http://web.mit.edu/buildings/statacenter)
shows many model pictures, and also updates its web cam of the construction
site every 10 minutes. Photo credit: Stephen Umans
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Confronted with no parking,
pedestrian detours around torn-up roads, and construction equipment kicking
up dust, many people experience MIT's current building boom as massive
noise and inconvenience. However, Prof. William Mitchell, dean of the
School of Architecture and Planning, says, "There is a coherent vision
and a coherent plan, and all of this construction will add up to something
much greater than the sum of the individual projects. The fundamental
idea is to weave everything together in a vibrant, residential community."
Dozens of people attended Mitchell's talk and tour, "MIT in the 21st Century,"
on Nov. 1, sponsored by the MIT Activities Committee.
Inspired by the Oxford and Cambridge (England) quadrangles and Thomas
Jefferson's beautifully symmetrical plan for the Univ. of Virginia, Charles
Bosworth designed MIT as a graceful neoclassical refuge where people could
arrive at Killian Court by commuter gondolas from Boston. As an urban
university, MIT is hemmed in clear boundaries such as the Charles River
and Memorial Drive. "All the new construction is a rare chance to completely
change the face of campus," an opportunity available only once in a generation,
says Mitchell.
MIT has a long heritage of being a commuter college rather than a residential
university such as Oxford. Mitchell points out that lab space tends to
be utilitarian and not designed for socializing, "but it's over social
space when creativity flourishes," as in the ramshackle Bldg. 20A-E, nicknamed
"the idea factory."
To improve the residential
and lab life, new construction should encourage an intense 24-hour community
in new campus residences designed with more social spaces. Better teaching
spaces will contain lecture rooms with the latest high technology. More
green spaces and a better street system will enhance life in general.
With no uniform campus building code, Mitchell anticipates a "cross-generational
dialog in buildings."
As the largest and oddest
building complex, the Stata Center will have its own microclimate, many
informal social spaces, and a student street. A staunch defender of the
unconventional design by Frank Gehry, Mitchell ignored the guffaws from
the audience when he showed slides of architect's models.
Other new buildings in various
stages from half-finished to design only include the Okawa Center, an
extension of the Media Lab, designed by Fumihiko Maki; Simmons Hall, the
new undergraduate dorm, designed by Stephen Holl; and the Zesiger Sports
and Fitness Center, designed by Kevin Roche. Completion dates for these
buildings range from late 2002 to 2004. All of the new buildings will
have windows that open, promises Mitchell.
Maneuvering his tour briskly
around construction obstacles, Mitchell likened the construction of the
irregularly shaped Simmons Hall to "building a watch out of precast concrete."
The somewhat reflective glass of the curtain wall on the Zesiger athletic
center "talks" to the curved glass wall of Kresge facing it, creating
a dialogue between buildings which is totally lacking with the "big brutal
boxes' of the Johnson Athletic Center and the Student Center flanking
it.At night, the glass wall will allow an enticing semi-transparent view
of shadowy figures engaged in athletic activities, to inspire the inactive
to join them.
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