MIT East Campus - Kendall Square Gateway | Cambridge

617 said:
They're tearing that building down?
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Yes, as part of the massive East Campus building project.

The building needs major system upgrades, and the systems are all trapped in concrete raceways throughout the structure. Extremely expensive upgrades (bad building maintenance planning -- common in the era). Judgement was that it was smarter to just rebuild.

Same issue happened at the Harbor Towers, but they bit the bullet for the upgrades (and had a massive $76 Million assessment of the owners in 2007).
 
The worrysome trend is that this is the second building in a few years MIT's tearing down because they don't want to spend the money to refurbish it (Bexley)
 
Gameguy326 said:
The worrysome trend is that this is the second building in a few years MIT's tearing down because they don't want to spend the money to refurbish it (Bexley)
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Well, at least this one is being replaced with another grad student housing tower.

I think that the situations were different. This was pretty much a case of: we need the housing, but the cost of upgrading the current building is way out of line with the value, relative to a new construction solution.

Many of these Brutalist buildings were really poorly designed for long-term maintenance. (Boston City Hall suffers from this issue as well.)
 
JeffDowntown said:
Well, at least this one is being replaced with another grad student housing tower.

I think that the situations were different. This was pretty much a case of: we need the housing, but the cost of upgrading the current building is way out of line with the value, relative to a new construction solution.
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Being replaced with additional grad student units included. Drop in the bucket, but at least it'snot 1 for 1 replacement.

The new building will be a shorter fatty, but at least it will interact with the street instead of separating itself from the neighborhood as is currently the case. Something else Eastgate has in common with the harbor towers.
 
Gameguy's Bexley example was not brutalist...it was an old brick apartment building-turned-dorm from the turn of the century that was not built as an MIT building. Supposedly the structural issues were severe - original plan was to save it, then it sat vacant for 2 years undergoing inspections and redesigns before they chose to tear it down. All I know is that student council initially protested, then were given tours of building to show them the structural damage, and the the protests promptly stopped. I can't attest to how legit the tear-down decision was, but it is unusual for MIT student protestors to give up so easily...so there was probably something there.
 
bigpicture7 said:
Gameguy's Bexley example was not brutalist...it was an old brick apartment building-turned-dorm from the turn of the century that was not built as an MIT building. Supposedly the structural issues were severe - original plan was to save it, then it sat vacant for 2 years undergoing inspections and redesigns before they chose to tear it down. All I know is that student council initially protested, then were given tours of building to show them the structural damage, and the the protests promptly stopped. I can't attest to how legit the tear-down decision was, but it is unusual for MIT student protestors to give up so easily...so there was probably something there.
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Yes, I realize that. I was specifically talking about East Gate.

Bexley had been badly neglected for a long time.
 
^ sorry I was speaking generally to convey that East Gate and Bexley are pretty different situations and perhaps not indicative of an overall trend of MIT tending toward demo. I didn't mean it as a response to your post.

Just as there are these couple of examples of MIT demo, there are also several of them going out of their way on costly rehabs/renovations (even beyond the architecturally significant bldgs...e.g, the current Bldg. 31 project)
 
I was surprised that Bexley was not salvageable, though (although it was badly neglected). The former Ashdown House (now Maseeh Hall) at Mass Ave and Mem Drive was successfully renovated between 2008 and 2011, and it is a similar era apartment building converted to dorms.
 
I suspect the renovate versus new decisions have multiple factors including some not discussed and some particular to an institution. Renovation might be less expensive but new construction gives you more flexibility and a potentially overall better end result with limited space on campus. Donors might be more interested in new construction for naming rights.
 
Take a walk down Vassar & Albany. No lack of space on that campus.
So many empty lots and parking lots that the graduate housing crisis could be solved in a 5 year span.
 
Presumably they'll have to implode it. That ought to at least be interesting...
 
The only good news is they'll have to fully complete the new dorm building (aka the new tallest in Cambridge) before they demo Eastgate. Right now Eastgate is literally the only building in Cambridge that "soars" due to its proportions and high floor count. I still remember noticing it for the first time around 17 years ago, and thinking it was basically the only tall building in Cambridge. I'll be sad to see it go.

Given the enormous scale of this and Volpe, it's stunning how damn uninspired MIT is as a developer overall! Short, squat, and fat is the MIT/Cambridge way!
 
Gameguy326 said:
The worrysome trend is that this is the second building in a few years MIT's tearing down because they don't want to spend the money to refurbish it (Bexley)
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They got play money. And they're rather a good bunch with the arithmetic. They compared the new East Campus as clean sheet and achieving everything they desire vs polishing a tired relic w/ its HVAC, pipes, wires, and safety systems trapped within. The Space Shuttle is gone.
 
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DZH22 said:
Right now Eastgate is literally the only building in Cambridge that "soars" due to its proportions and high floor count. I still remember noticing it for the first time around 17 years ago, and thinking it was basically the only tall building in Cambridge. I'll be sad to see it go.
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Sounds more like you are describing the Green building.
 
fattony said:
Sounds more like you are describing the Green building.
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Eastgate has a higher floor count (even though they have lower ceilings) and tricks your eye like that, similarly to say, the entire Vancouver skyline. Add in the antenna on top and it always *appears* to be the tallest in Cambridge, especially from up close.
 
From 8/13:
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