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05-13-2004, 12:16 PM
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#1 of 28 
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Architect Frank Gehry's Latest Creation
M.I.T.'s Ray and Maria Stata Center, a 730,000-square-foot complex devoted to computer science.
Frank Gehry Gives M.I.T. Its Newest Experiment
By SARA RIMER
AMBRIDGE, Mass., May 12 — Frank Gehry, the architect, says his $300 million new computer science and artificial intelligence building at M.I.T. "looks like a party of drunken robots got together to celebrate."
More photos and the rest of the article are here. |
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05-13-2004, 12:18 PM
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#2 of 28
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Looks like a designer and client with far too much time and money on their hands.
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05-13-2004, 12:21 PM
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#3 of 28
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Mr. Gehry and the people at M.I.T. do have a sense of humor. Read the article to find out why it is what it is. The building and space within were badly needed. Aren't you tired of glass and metal boxes? I am.
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05-13-2004, 01:24 PM
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#4 of 28
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The Boston Globe's Magazine section did a side-by-side of the Stata Center and Building 59, which it replaced (and, yes, "Building 59" pretty much describes most MIT architecture).
I walk by it once or twice a week and love it, but I have no idea how well it works inside. The Globe piece described B59's strictly utilitarian design (it was originally a temporary building erected for Defense work during WWII) as being considered a great equalizer and well-suited to the left-brained folks working within.
But, lord, did MIT need this building, even if the cost and time overruns were hellacious. I live next to Harvard, currently work at Northeastern, and walk through Boston University and MIT regularly, and based on that sample I figure MIT may just be the butt-ugliest college in the world. A building they can actually put on the cover of their catalog certainly couldn't hurt it.
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05-13-2004, 05:12 PM
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#5 of 28
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When the EMP (another Gehry creation) opened in Seattle a few years ago, I overheard a resident commenting that it "looks like the Space Needle took a dump".
Small overhead photo available here.
More photos and a cool time lapse video of construction can be found here.
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05-13-2004, 05:38 PM
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#6 of 28
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Quote:
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Aren't you tired of glass and metal boxes? I am.
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amen to that. i personally think that building is awesome!
i congratulate forward-thinking architects. i've always wished i had what it takes to think like that...
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05-13-2004, 06:44 PM
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#7 of 28
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It looks cool. I hope it survives the test of time (aesthetically speaking).
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05-13-2004, 08:20 PM
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#8 of 28
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Something about it gives me a kitschy vibe. The color scheme also strikes me as uninspired.
In general, I really don't like Gehry's work. IMO, a building shouldn't call attention to itself. But when you stop and pay attention to it, that's when you should be blown-away. So I guess I like something a little more subtle.
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05-13-2004, 08:54 PM
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#9 of 28
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Jason,
When you walk by Stata do you notice the building under construction across Vassar street (over the tracks)? That's the building my firm is designing for MIT. I go out for site visits all the time and you should see the view of Stata from the 8th floor of our building!
The only thing I don't like about Stata is the white wall they erected in the center of the massing along Vassar. Apparently the original design called for a lot more glass but they miscalculated the wind loads on that part of the building and because of cost were forced to change the design. Unfortunately for us the 'white wall' cuts off a lot of the filtered sunlight that the lower part of our building would have received.
It's a cool building and I applaud MIT and Gehry for challenging conventional Boston thinking WRT architecture.
 You want to upgrade again?!!
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05-14-2004, 02:06 AM
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#10 of 28
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Ricardo C
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I'm sure it works beautifully inside, but I can't bring myself to say the exterior design is appealing at all.
Man, an hour wasted on this sig! Thanks, Toshiba! :p
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