| The Ralph
and Maria Stata Center
The Ralph and Maria Stata Center for Computer, Information, and Intelligence Sciences
opened in March and was dedicated on May 7, 2004.
Designed by Frank O. Gehry, the Stata Center houses office and research space for the
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems,
and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.
Teaching, conference, and meeting spaces support these activities. Classrooms and an
auditorium provide 600 seats at ground level, with an additional 200 seats located in two student workspaces
one level below.
Enhancements to the academic environment include a café, a pub, a fitness center, and a
childcare center. Outdoor areas include terraces and a raised garden for conversation and quiet study,
as well as an amphitheater for larger gatherings.
Architecturally, the Stata Center features two tower complexes—the Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr.
Building and the William H. Gates Building—sitting on a common plinth called the “warehouse.” The Gates and Dreyfoos
buildings form the endpoints of a large letter C whose interior wall faces south to receive maximum sunlight, revealing
a “bouquet” of towers and other distinctive structures facing the interior of the campus. |
Living
in Stata
The Stata Center is now home to more than 1,000 students, faculty, and staff. Here are some observations by the first
group of faculty and students to move into Stata:
“I find the new building exciting. It is a great research environment because it stimulates
informal interaction. The neighborhood structure, with much vertical visibility between pairs of floors, helps build larger communities and interaction with more colleagues.”
—Frederick P. Durand, assistant professor of computer science and engineering
“To me, MIT is beautiful. Not beautiful in the sense of homogenous red brick buildings and
well-groomed lawns; nor in the sense of a homogenous, well-groomed student body. Rather, it is a beauty by accident.
And the Stata Center fully captures this haphazard beauty—at once diverse, unrestrained, brilliant and magical.”
—Guy Weichenberg, LIDS graduate student
“Almost every time I walk in the building, I feel a smile emerging on my face.
The building is fun to be in.”
—John Guttag, professor of computer science and engineering
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