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MIT Media Lab Expansion - 2009 - Built around a culture of cross-disciplinary research groups, MIT`s Media Lab has pioneered a dynamic research environment where academia and industry collaborate. Its new building is a workplace and a showplace for technological innovation, design, and the arts. At the heart of the building, a multi-tiered central atrium surrounded by research labs and informal gathering spaces offers a high level of transparency and interconnection between spaces. Seven laboratory spaces are vertically staggered around the atrium such that the lower level of one research space is on the same level of the upper level of another. This arrangement results in unexpected and engaging diagonal views from one laboratory to another and through the building to its outer glass wall. The atrium cascades through all seven floors and serves as the primary vertical and horizontal circulation. It is the building`s active social node with public spaces for exhibitions, performances, and impromptu gatherings. To provide a meeting place for the Media Lab`s many visitors, the new building is crowned with a conference center commanding a panoramic view of the Boston skyline across the Charles River. A large multi-purpose function room, an intimate presentation forum, and a flexible meeting and dining space surround the light-filled winter garden and terrace. The six-story building sits comfortably in its setting surrounded by lower campus structures. Its envelope of glass, aluminum panels, and aluminum pipe screen and its shaped roof profile create a light and delicately scaled presence amid its solid masonry neighbors. About the MIT Media Lab: Actively promoting a unique, antidisciplinary culture, the MIT Media Lab goes beyond known boundaries and disciplines, encouraging the most unconventional mixing and matching of seemingly disparate research areas. It creates disruptive technologies that happen at the edges, pioneering such areas as wearable computing, tangible interfaces, and affective computing. Today, faculty members, research staff, and students at the Lab work in more than 25 research groups on more than 350 projects that range from digital approaches for treating neurological disorders, to a stackable, electric car for sustainable cities, to advanced imaging technologies that can “see around a corner.” The Lab is committed to looking beyond the obvious to ask the questions not yet asked–questions whose answers could radically improve the way people live, learn, express themselves, work, and play.

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Most schools usually have alumni events around graduation. So it is nice to celebrate separately.

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Gund Hall - 1972 - Gund Hall, home of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, showcases innovative architectural elements for its time such as a poured concrete construction and a stepped, trussed glass roof that covers a vast studio space organized on five terraces, also known as “the trays”. Notably, the building rises to meet its neighboring Memorial Hall and includes a covered arcade for pedestrians on the Quincy Street facade. Gund Hall brought together the different divisions of the Design School under one clear-span roof, promoting communication and collaboration between departments. With its unique architectural expression and functional design, Gund Hall exemplifies an innovative approach to spatial organization and integration of diverse disciplines, making it an iconic structure within design education.

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Gropius House - 1938 - This house was built by Walter Gropius in 1938. Gropius, who was founder of the Bauhaus design school in Germany, constructed this home when he went to teach at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard. The house also contains a large furniture collection by Marcel Breuer. The pieces were fabricated in the Bauhaus workshops. The property is owned by Historic New England.

Photo © Leers Weinzapfel Associates

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Farkas Hall, New College Theater - 2007 - A new home for Harvard`s undergraduate theatrical and musical performance, Farkas Hall restores, transforms, and expands the former Hasty Pudding Club at the heart of Harvard Square. Originally a social club and home of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the new stage continues the traditions of the Theatricals, including the Man and Woman of the Year awards, and in addition hosts production by Harvard-affiliated groups and performances open to the public, signaling a new era of innovation for the performing arts at Harvard.The original front one-third of the 1887 brick structure and its entry porches were retained and restored for lobby and multi-purpose uses. The rear two-thirds of the building was removed, rebuilt and expanded with three new stories below grade for the new theater and its support spaces and three above for a black box/rehearsal space and stage house to accommodate the full theatre program. The 272-seat theater is entered from the restored lobby and steps down a full floor level to the stage. Inside the theatre, deep crimson aniline dyed wood paneling and internally lit air diffusers create a bold and imaginative environment for student productions. Equipped with a moveable thrust stage, orchestra pit, and full theater lighting, the flexible performance space is rich with educational opportunities. The south porch of the original building and adjacent ramped passage form the new accessible public theatre entry. Glimpsed from the street, the transparent lobby zone of the new building invites passersby into an intriguing modern theatre just beyond the historic façade.

Photo © Paul Warchol

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Harvard University Library Services Building - 2007 - An inviting glass street wall and a crown of skylights announce the new home of Harvard University Library`s Weissman Preservation Center for some of the rarest books in the world, Information Systems offices, and a street level bookshop. The site on Mt. Auburn Street, surrounded by historic Harvard social clubs and Sert`s Holyoke Center, is at the very heart of pedestrian activity and energetically protected by the Cambridge Historic Commission and neighborhood groups. To balance competing community desires for a building in scale and size suited to the character of the street, and the university`s need for the maximum usable area for its programs, we created a carefully calibrated building with four stories above grade and two stories below using concrete flat slab construction to minimize overall building height. The new building projects an image of lightness and openness with its finely scaled and proportioned window wall facing Mt. Auburn Street. Along the sidewalk, a canopy protects the bookstore, display vitrines, and bookstore entry. At the top floor, sculptural skylights bring daylight into the Preservation Center. A new through block landscaped pathway links Mt. Auburn Street and Winthrop Street beyond. Sustainable design thinking played a critical role in winning community approval. The use of a geothermal heating and cooling system eliminating noisy and unsightly roof top mechanical equipment was a key to success for neighborhood groups. The north facing window wall and generous skylights minimize artificial lighting load, provide an ideal environment for the activities of the Preservation Center, and create a lively and open face to the street. After an extended community review process, members of the Cambridge Historical Commission dubbed the project “ a little jewel box.”

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MIT Media Lab Expansion - 2009 - Built around a culture of cross-disciplinary research groups, MIT`s Media Lab has pioneered a dynamic research environment where academia and industry collaborate. Its new building is a workplace and a showplace for technological innovation, design, and the arts. At the heart of the building, a multi-tiered central atrium surrounded by research labs and informal gathering spaces offers a high level of transparency and interconnection between spaces. Seven laboratory spaces are vertically staggered around the atrium such that the lower level of one research space is on the same level of the upper level of another. This arrangement results in unexpected and engaging diagonal views from one laboratory to another and through the building to its outer glass wall. The atrium cascades through all seven floors and serves as the primary vertical and horizontal circulation. It is the building`s active social node with public spaces for exhibitions, performances, and impromptu gatherings. To provide a meeting place for the Media Lab`s many visitors, the new building is crowned with a conference center commanding a panoramic view of the Boston skyline across the Charles River. A large multi-purpose function room, an intimate presentation forum, and a flexible meeting and dining space surround the light-filled winter garden and terrace. The six-story building sits comfortably in its setting surrounded by lower campus structures. Its envelope of glass, aluminum panels, and aluminum pipe screen and its shaped roof profile create a light and delicately scaled presence amid its solid masonry neighbors. About the MIT Media Lab: Actively promoting a unique, antidisciplinary culture, the MIT Media Lab goes beyond known boundaries and disciplines, encouraging the most unconventional mixing and matching of seemingly disparate research areas. It creates disruptive technologies that happen at the edges, pioneering such areas as wearable computing, tangible interfaces, and affective computing. Today, faculty members, research staff, and students at the Lab work in more than 25 research groups on more than 350 projects that range from digital approaches for treating neurological disorders, to a stackable, electric car for sustainable cities, to advanced imaging technologies that can “see around a corner.” The Lab is committed to looking beyond the obvious to ask the questions not yet asked–questions whose answers could radically improve the way people live, learn, express themselves, work, and play.

Featured

Most schools usually have alumni events around graduation. So it is nice to celebrate separately.