Kendall/MIT Infill and Small Developments

Gameguy326 said:
The Warehouse Renovation project will be architected by Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, of High Line and ICA fame.

http://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-met-warehouse-renovation-planning-takes-exciting-next-step-1214
Click to expand...

Just going to echo what I said 2 posts ago - moving architecture here is great and all for the updated spaces and a larger building, but they keep pushing the fact that this will be a new step in pushing multidisciplinary collaboration, which will be more difficult when compared with its current location (in the midst of various departments and labs, and a short walk (inside) from the new nano building). This new location isolates the architecture department from the rest of the main quad and across Vassar and Mass Ave.
 
I hope they keep the large white lettering on the building. That is truly iconic and awesome.
 
Wow I had no idea SAP was moving to the warehouse! This could be incredible. With Diller Scofidio here and Herzog & de Meuron doing the expansion of Gund Hall at Harvard we're hopefully in for some very high quality architecture.
 
The most distinctive Cambridgeport warehouse, as well as one of the oldest buildings in the vicinity of MIT., is the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse at Massachusetts Avenue and Vassar Street. Built in 1895, the five-story, 90-foot-wide brick building was extended in 1911 to a total length of 480 feet. Peabody and Stearns were the architects for both the original building and the extension. Although constructed of brick rather than a reinforced concrete, the warehouse is fireproof, because its ceiling and roof are brick-arched … Stylistically, the Metropolitan Warehouse evokes the solid, impregnable image of a medieval castle, with a prominent square corner tower, additional towerlike projections along both main facades, a crenellated corbelled cornice and small slit windows (round in the top story). It helped to set the style for such subsequent pre-MIT structures as Riverbank Court of 1900 Memorial Drive and the Armory of 1902 across Vassar Street. In terms of access, the warehouse lies directly alongside the Boston and Albany railroad tracks and has truck loading doors along Vassar Street, although the latter lack adequate provision for trucks to pull of the street. Off-street loading facilities were not so important in the horse-and-wagon era when the building was erected.
Click to expand...
Cambridge Historical Commission (1971)

MIT-3Q-Met-Storage-1_0.jpg

This lettering is less iconic. A Google Drive reveals there are five iterations of the signage, on all four sides. That's to the point of visual clutter.

IMO, the west facade is likely to be opened up; next to the railroad track and am MIT parking lot off of Mass Ave., and which will disappear some day.
 
Last edited:
The parking lot has a nuclear reactor situated next to it. I doubt it’s going anywhere.
 
lexicon506 said:
Wow I had no idea SAP was moving to the warehouse! This could be incredible. With Diller Scofidio here and Herzog & de Meuron doing the expansion of Gund Hall at Harvard we're hopefully in for some very high quality architecture.
Click to expand...
It's great these firms will be producing work here but it would have been much better if they were involved in building from scratch (they are foreground architects not background.) Instead, most of what they end up doing will be interior renovations, very little of which will likely be visible from the street.
 
stellarfun said:
Cambridge Historical Commission (1971)

MIT-3Q-Met-Storage-1_0.jpg

This lettering is less iconic. A Google Drive reveals there are five iterations of the signage, on all four sides. That's to the point of visual clutter.

IMO, the west facade is likely to be opened up; next to the railroad track and am MIT parking lot off of Mass Ave., and which will disappear some day.
Click to expand...

Would be good to power strip the lettering and either leave it plain or maybe go with new lettering to indicate the Department of Architecture + Planning
 
This might sound weird because there was no announcement, but unless my eyes deceived me, somewhere in the last few months the Saxon Tennis Courts were demolished and replaced by a grassy field (http://whereis.mit.edu/?go=G1). This is important because it's one of the last few developable sites on main campus (along with partial redevelopment of 1-story portion of building 24, or a symmetric infill like building 6C (http://capitalprojects.mit.edu/projects/pdsi-building-6c). I wonder what will go here? For reference, it's closest to:

Chemical Engineering
Senior House, Gray House, and East Campus dorms
Walker Memorial, a student gathering area that's pretty underused.
Media Lab Complex
Earth Sciences
Chemistry
Humanities

MIT has wanted to build a building dedicated to research on energy and the environment, which would complement Earth Science, Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering nearby, so if I had to guess what they put here, it will be a building dedicated to that: http://capitalprojects.mit.edu/projects/energy-and-environment

At one point they wanted to renovate Walker for music and theater arts, but it seems that plan has been abandoned.
 
from today – cladding mostly up on the track side (not on the Albany Street side):
40EZbvLh.jpg
 
MIT to long-term-lease out the Osborne Triangle development (Pfizer/Novartis/Lab Central) buildings at 610 Main, 700 Main, & One Portland St. for $1.1 billion, which works out to $1,625/sq. ft. The article implies MITIMCo will retain ownership after an extended period (similar to the ground leases in place at University Park / Tech Square)

The article also suggests that this $1.1bil may be a funding source for the Volpe Development or ongoing Kendall Gateway work.

From the globe:
MIT-owned lab buildings change hands for reported $1.1 billion
Click to expand...

Here's a related Q&A from MIT News:
http://news.mit.edu/2019/investment-osborn-triangle-0517
This seems to confirm some of this money will be steered toward starting Volpe...


MODS:
There was no clear thread in which to place this. It could have been tied to Volpe or Kendall Gateway, or the 610/700 Main bldgs.
What I'd suggest instead: can we just rename this thread again to something simple like: "MIT Campus Projects"
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top