Transformative spaces [MIT Tech Review]

View Article on MIT Tech Review
MIT people often find their greatest moments of inspiration in each other’s company. And two big, beautiful additions to West Campus now underway will open up new spaces for connection, collaboration, rigorous exploration, and joyful play. 

Stretching along Mass. Ave. and Vassar Street, the familiar brick face of the historic Metropolitan Storage Warehouse may evoke a medieval castle. But inside, an intriguing redesign is transforming this former warren of storage spaces into an open, light-filled new home for the School of Architecture and Planning and the MIT Morningside Academy for Design. 

The Met Warehouse will give faculty in SA+P an environment for teaching and research that matches their professional and creative excellence. And the building itself is a kind of pedagogical tool, as it celebrates the intersections of the historic brick structure and the fresh design ideas that animate it now. With its large, welcoming communal spaces, including an auditorium and a gallery, the “Met” is sure to become a new center of gravity and energy on campus.

And a new building will soon open its doors to support MIT’s flourishing music community. With Kresge Auditorium as its next-door neighbor, the building situates the experiences of making and enjoying music right at the heart of campus. Its optimized acoustical design and sound-insulating walls will be a gift to MIT’s conservatory-level musicians and talented beginners alike. And its beautiful performance hall will draw music-loving audiences from across campus and surrounding communities, exerting its own gravitational pull. 

The two new buildings—a renovated warehouse from 1895 and a brand-new structure—will invite our hands-on community to do more of what we love: designing and building, making and playing. They will offer new opportunities for everything from experimenting with 3D printing to learning how to restore landmark buildings to planning resilient cities; from classical orchestra to avant-garde jazz to Senegalese drumming. 

And they will help us infuse the lessons and logic of music and design across other disciplines too, expanding our thinking and practice in ways that will vastly improve our potential to solve society’s toughest problems. 

Transformative projects like these boost our community’s creativity, ingenuity, and resilience. As we reshape the campus, we inspire our community to reshape the world. 

Sally Kornbluth