MIT Expansion Plans | MIT/Kendall Square | Cambridge

[Mike]

MIT breaks ground on future management school site
Boston Business Journal - 11:56 AM EDT Thursday, May 17, 2007
by Brian Kladko
Journal staff


The Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology broke ground this week on a new home facing the Charles River.

The structure will consolidate the Sloan School's footprint from the current nine buildings to four, and will bring all of the faculty under one roof for the first time. It will also include classrooms for both regular students and executive education students, group study rooms, a dining area and a three-story underground garage.

The $105 million, 209,000-square-foot building is scaled down from the design originally proposed in 1998, which also would have included a new home for the Sloan School's library. But it proved to be too expensive in the wake of the dot-com bust.

The building will be on the site of the Dibner Library, which was demolished last month. The replacement will stand six stories high, and will include a large glass wall facing Memorial Drive and the river.

The new building, to open in 2010, will have two names: E62, in keeping with MIT's traditional system for identifying buildings, and the William A. Porter Management Center, in honor of the biggest donor and an alumnus of the Sloan Fellows program, which caters to mid-career executives. Porter, the founder of E*TRADE, gave $25 million in 1999.

The project is one of major achievements of Sloan Dean Richard Schmalensee, who steps down next month. Schmalensee said at Wednesday's ceremony that a new home for the school became one of his priorities upon taking the post in 1998.

"It had been clear for some time that the school's facilities simply were not going to be adequate for a world class, MIT-class school of management in the new century," he said. "It will simultaneously give use elbow room and bring us closer together."

The Sloan School will continue to occupy the architecturally unremarkable Sloan building, to which the Porter building will be connected, as well as a neighboring building that is nondescript but protected from demolition because it was the birthplace of Arthur D. Little.


Link

 

[stellarfun]

Repairing the Stata Center already. Wonder who was responsible for the rather mundane task of designing the amphitheater pavement.

From the MIT facilities website:

Beginning on Monday, June 11, the Amphitheater will be closed in by construction fences in order to reconstruct the area. The reconstruction includes the removal of all failed brick surfaces and the preparation of a new underlying drainage mat. This new drainage mat is designed so that there will not be a repeat of the earlier design where water was trapped under the bricks and manifested as the white stains and loose brickwork.

(bolding mine)

 

[lexicon506]

Here's another rendering of the new Sloan building...nice green roof.

atlrvr @ UP

 

[stellarfun]

MIT's latest graduate housing building. This is one long set of buildings.

northern end

mid-point

mid-point

southern end

 

[stellarfun]

MIT announced today that the an alumnus, David Koch had given the school $100 million for its new 350,000 sq. ft. cancer lab, with the proviso that construction be accelerated and completed by 2010. From the MIT construction website, they are only doing test boring holes this week.

 

[Equilibria]

Goodness me, is that a reasonable-looking building at MIT? What a relief!

 

[stellarfun]

Sloan School construction site Oct 14. Looking east toward Memorial Drive. Walsh is the contractor.

The new MIT Graduate Housing. Bovis is the contractor. (Oriented from west to east, or south or north, or from the direction of the BU bridge to the Mass Ave bridge.)

 

[stellarfun]

A mega-versity by 2100?? I am guessing this land is nearer the River St. Bridge than to the BU Bridge.

MIT?s milestone deal. Buys up land near Harvard turf
By Scott Van Voorhis

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has quietly pulled off a sizable land deal, one that brings MIT property right up to the edge of Harvard?s own extensive real estate holdings.

MIT has bought the land underneath a number of new biotech buildings off or near Memorial Drive, setting itself up to collect rent from the owner of the lab facilities, Alexandria Real Estate. MIT paid roughly $12.5 million for the lots, which hold hundreds of thousands of square feet of research buildings, said John McQuaid, associate director of real estate for MIT.

The land deal highlights MIT?s considerable activity in the Cambridge real estate market, a fact sometimes overlooked amid Harvard?s ambitious real estate plans.

The deal also makes MIT and Harvard abutters for the first time, said McQuaid. Harvard owns a new residential building - used as faculty housing - next to the lab buildings.

The convergence of the region?s two top universities has caught the attention of neighborhood activists wary about voracious real estate appetites.

Stosh Horowitz, head of the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Initiative, called it the result of years of expansion down either side of Memorial Drive by the two universites, with Harvard pushing east, and MIT expanding westward.

?Cambridgeport now has finally been the site of a meeting of MIT and Harvard along the river,? Horowitz said. ?I just hope they want to do it as an investment.?

And that is just what MIT has planned, said the school?s McQuaid.

The land deal stems from MIT?s $600 million sale last year of its Tech Square research complex to Alexandria Real Estate. As part of the deal, MIT acquired the option to buy land underneath other Cambridge biotech buildings owned by the company.

Harvard has bought up hundreds of acres across the Charles River in Allston and is now pushing ahead with plans for a new life sciences complex.

Some of MIT?s deals, however, are designed purely to produce returns for the university?s endowment, McQuaid said.

All told, MIT owns roughly $1 billion in investment property in Cambridge and around the world, he said.

?We like investing in Cambridge,? McQuaid said. ?We have been successful and we feel it?s a long-term benefit to Cambridge.?

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1042046

 

[statler]

I know having MIT here and growing is a good thing, but I wonder if all these land grabs are going to force real estate prices to the point where biotech firms will start looking to locate in other tech hot spots like the Valley.

 

[stellarfun]

I know having MIT here and growing is a good thing, but I wonder if all these land grabs are going to force real estate prices to the point where biotech firms will start looking to locate in other tech hot spots like the Valley.

I just looked up (commercial) land costs in Sunnyvale CA. 0.7 acre advertised for $4.3 million.

I don't think land costs matter much to biotech. The more likely long-term consequence is that the homes in North Allston (north of the Turnpike) and along the river in Cambridge will increasingly be owned by those working in academia or the associated laboratories. (I can forsee Harvard Business School graduates buying housing stock in North Allston, renovating, and renting to HBS students.) I have little doubt that North Allston will be gentrified. I don't know much about the Cambridgeport neighborhood. I did get a sense that there is gentrification going on in the areas where Harvard built new graduate housing (the Copperthwaite St. complex) and where Harvard is building more graduate housing along Memorial Drive itself.

 

[underground]

Cambridgport is already heavily gentrified. Certain pockets closer to Central Square, and along River St. are still a little rough around the edges. 3 years ago when I was looking to rent in Cambridge, we looked in Cambridgeport and wound up in North Camrbidge.

 

[whighlander]

Back when I was an undergrad at MIT in the 1970's there was a well known bumper sticker based on Julius Caesar?s famous commentary, De Bello Gallico, on his campaigns against the Gauls, ?Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres? (?All Gaul is divided into three parts?). Our version was -- Cantabridgia est omnis divisa in partes duas ? Harvard and MIT.

At that time there were some other significant land owners including Polaroid. Today, except for the strip along the Charles from the MOS to the Longfellow Bridge and some internal areas that are far away from the two campuses ? the bumper sticker is close to being accurate.

A bit off-topic ? but -- we also had some other cure bumper stickers such as:
1) 3x10^10 cm/s is not just a good speed {i.e. the C of E=MC^2} its the Law {complete with an Einstein disguised as a cop} ? based on some 55 MPH public service ads
2) Make it in Carolingia ? complete with a mailed fist with extended thumb ? based on a 1970?s promotion for Massachusetts ?Make it in Massachusetts? that featured a fore arm with fist and extended thumb ? the connection was through the Society of Creative Anachronism {SCA} ? the local chapter was known as the Barony of Carolingia in the SCA www.carolingia.eastkingdom.org

Anyway ? while HAAAAAAHVAAAAAHD is talking about and starting to do some expanding in Alston and then talking about moving Storrow Drive, the rail yards and maybe even the Turnpike? ? MIT just keeps on expanding outward and in the process it is -- creating some of the most significant real estate in the World ? aka where the future is being invented -- in Kendal Sq., University Park {aka Simplex Property}, Central Square and soon?

Westy

 

[Suffolk 83]

can you stop talking so much? and calling people newbys when you really havent been posting that long. and 'educating' the masses when you just drone on and on. its getting tiresome. if you post 100 times in page form, it doesn't make you guru of the website, so stop dismissing people because they dont have as many posts as you. thankyou and good day.

 

[nm88]

This is beginning to feel like the Westy website. Perhaps, sir, you might post a little more judiciously? Please.

 

[whighlander]

Dear Suffolk and NM

If I have posted a few more times than you consider necessary it is usually for a couple of reasons that I think are key:

1) Someone posts something that is either totally lacking in relevance, or repeats something that has been discussed in depth previously ? indicating a lack of contextual awareness ? aka a ?Newby? irrespective of how long that they?ve been a member
2) A topic starts to slide well away from the reality of some "facts," that I?m aware of -- as opposed to just a matter of opinion
3) I think that I can provide a unique perspective based on my relevant personal experience
4) I just like to discuss the particular topic
5) Some significant event occurs that alters the status quo {e.g. the inauguration of the Infill Space at MIT}

Usually when I post to a particular thread -- I've read all of the previous posts and in many cases done some amount of external homework to check on ?the facts? for example

I wish that the above could be said of all of the participants in the forum

All in all -- I enjoy, Boston, its environs, quirks and unique features and have spent many many hours distributed over many years -- walking about, reading about and thinking about our shared local environment. I also enjoy reading and contributing to the Forum.

I hope that what I do contribute to the Forum is valuable and of relevance to the discussion -- but in the end we are just playing a kind of conceptual Fantasy-Boston. Collectively, while we are hopefully enjoying our interaction through the Forum -- not much can really be expected to change based on what we say in this Forum.

As for me ? I?ve other things to do now -- and so {barring #5 above I'm done for today and quite probably for next six or so days

Westy

 

[nm88]

I have just one question for you, Westy: are you enjoying a cocktail when you post?

 

[BarbaricManchurian]

I wouldn't consider westy's posts spam, they're long and usually detailed and give insight on Boston (though some of your posts in different threads talk about the same topic). Spam (and I don't really have a problem with it either, unless if its advertising) would be short one word posts like "Great update" or some useless unsubstantiated pessimism, which is all too common in Boston and this forum.

 

[Ron Newman]

I enjoy westy's posts. What is wrong with learning about our history?

 

[Lrfox]

I enjoy westy's posts. What is wrong with learning about our history?

I'm going to second this. if a post annoys you, ignore it. I feel that talking about how much someones posts annoy you in the MIT expansion plans thread is spam as well. Westy has contributed more in each thread than most of us can hope to contribute to the forum as a whole.

I can't believe that people on here are bitching about the frequency that someone posts instead of the shit that's going on with Boston's development. We have a man who clearly is educated about architecture, and also happens to be enthusiastic about progress in the city and people here are going to shoot that down? Get over it. ignore the post if you disagree, or better yet, post an opposing argument with facts to back it up. Don't get pissy because someone posts a lot. Heaven forbid that someone use this forum as an outlet to express their enthusiasm for Boston and it's architecture both past and present (and future).

Get on with your lives, there are more things to bitch about than the frequency of Westy's posts. And Westy (shortening the name to "Westy annoys me, but because i've had a few, i'm sticking with it for the entirety of this post), keep 'em coming... the majority of us like to hear what you have to offer.

**Edit**
for the record, i have over 100 posts on the forum, and ONE of Westy's posts probably contains more than i've contributed all together. I don't care if someone with more knowledge than me calls me a "newbie" even if they have 1/3 the posts that i do. Number of posts don't determine the validity of what someone has to say.

 

[nm88]

Suffolk, I agree with you. But this is a community forum, and clearly there are people in this community who think Westy knows what he's talking about. So be it. Those of us who think otherwise can ignore him. (My guess is, many have chosen to remain silent.)

It's no big deal...

It's still fun here. It's only our opinions, after all -- and most of us, thankfully, would never presume to tell the others what is "relevant" or the "reality of the facts."