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Bennington College Student Center
Plaza Building
Dr. Marie Kane Student Services and Administration Building, Chaffey College
Richard J. Klarchek Information Commons, Loyola University
The Lavin-Bernick Center for Student Life, Tulane University
MIT PDSI
Syracuse University, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Newhouse III
Woodbury University Architecture Studio Building
Yale University Sculpture Building GalleryMIT PDSI
Payette drops a new structure inside a group of buildings, creating a bold, interactive space while updating its century-old neighbors.
When the architects at Boston-based Payette suggested that the best and most efficient way to renovate a group of old buildings was to build a totally new structure within their walls, the client was understandably skeptical. And when your client is a collection of world-renowned scientists and mathematicians accustomed to being the smartest people in the room, you’ve got to really make your case.
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But Payette isn’t intimidated by brainy academic types. The firm has built countless research facilities, laboratories, and residence halls at top universities across the U.S., and as far away as Pakistan. The folks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the other hand, have had plenty of experience dealing with capricious architects, having recently completed several noteworthy and controversial, campus buildings by Steven Holl, Charles Correa, and Frank Gehry.
Facing the Charles River and surrounding the vast lawn of Killian Court at the heart of MIT’s campus, the Main Group — a 1-million-square-foot complex erected in phases during the early part of the 20th century — serves as an icon of the institution. Practically, however, the old, narrow buildings’ outdated infrastructure and endless corridors could not support current modes of instruction and research.
MIT’s physics department, one of the largest in the world, was scattered throughout this complex and other, newer buildings. In desperate need of more and contiguous space, the department heads were faced with either a costly renovation of the Beaux-Arts structure (whose rigid geometry would still inadequately address the collaborative nature of their work), or building from scratch elsewhere. “The Main Group was becoming like an ‘inner city’ where only offices were left behind and research was going on in new facilities in the ‘suburbs,’ ” explains Marc Kastner, dean of the School of Science. “We wanted to try and use it as it was meant originally — as an integration of science, education, and community.”
Formal name of project:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PDSI (Physics, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Spectroscopy and Infrastructure) Project
Location:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge Massachusetts
Gross square footage:
New Construction: 50,000 sq.ft.
Renovated Construction: 75,000 sq.ft.
Infrastructure Improvements: 217,000 sq.ft.
Completion Date: May 2007
Owner: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Architect:
Payette
285 Summer Street
Boston MA, 02210
(p) 617-895-1000
(f) 617-895-1002
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