MIT East Campus - Kendall Square Gateway | Cambridge

Cortes said:
I am in agreement with most people here who think that this building is hideous, with one caveat. It is described as having "anodized aluminum siding", which, if done right, could actually make this building interesting. That said, I am SO DONE with this "random" window placement thing. I am absolutely positive that the folks at MIT are good with geometry, and surely, this beneath them. And yes, the cantilever is ridiculous.
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I agree with the random window thing being a bit played out, but this isn't random, its a pretty regular pattern.
 
Agreed. Not random but not strictly aligned.

There are so many comments on AB about why we are "done with misaligned, and random window placement". I think it would be fascinating if we could discuss in some thread why we think that designers do this. I have my own thoughts but I would love to hear what people who do not design buildings for a living to explain why they like/dislike/get tired of this expression.

Ready ... set .... go

cca
 
CCA, I'll just say it here. To me, good design should not look forced or trying to hard. No detail should ever look like an afterthought. This goes for old style symmetry and for daring, asymmetrical modern. I think my issue with asymmetrical or random windows is that it usually looks as though the designer is trying to do something unique for its own sake, rather than trying to make something that just looks good. When people do that I fondness it annoying. This building I'm not sure about... I think it could end up looking ok, hard to say just from the full on renders.
 
^ I tend to use a pretty simple test...

When the design screams look at me! look at me! look at me!...

and then when you do it make you want to puke, then it has gone too far.
 
This could be incredible but there's maybe too much jazz to it now. Gradations could be toned down or removed altogether, or maybe just vertically line up the windows on the sides but keep the irregularity of the ends. Love the cantilever, it adds a dynamic tension that gives it a floaty levitation. This is not your grandpappy's MIT dorm nor should it be.
 
Brad Plaid said:
This could be incredible but there's maybe too much jazz to it now. Gradations could be toned down or removed altogether, or maybe just vertically line up the windows on the sides but keep the irregularity of the ends. Love the cantilever, it adds a dynamic tension that gives it a floaty levitation. This is not your grandpappy's MIT dorm nor should it be.
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Brad Plaid -- once more -- this is
The tower will be graduate student housing, with approximately 450 beds.
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There is a world of difference between graduate student housing and an undergraduate dorm [even at MIT where most of the undergrads participate in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program [UROP] now over 40 years old]].

Graduate students first and foremost look to the lab and their thesis work -- anything which distracts from that [such as excessive distance] is a negative in the choice of your residence -- for a couple of years after I got married and moved into a duplex several miles from the UT campus, I kept a cot in my office because of the time and distance factor
 
random window buildings said:
Look at me rage against the grid of the machine! I refuse to be bound by rigid tradition!
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Still doesn't make it look that nice.
 
Is this another attempt to make a Stata center style building?
 
617 said:
Is this another attempt to make a Stata center style building?
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It's not even Stata-esque. There's no interesting geometry here. Its only interesting feature is the facade pattern, which is not interesting, just a mess.
 
I dont think this looks bad at all, why so much hate on here lately?
 
Are they tearing down that concrete tower to the left of the new renders?
 
617 said:
Are they tearing down that concrete tower to the left of the new renders?
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The Green Building? Never. That's basically a landmark at this point, and functional as a display. I don't think anybody wants to see that go.

tetris1_img6080.jpg
 
Eastgate is getting torn down. Get ready to see a 30-story tower demolished - not a sight you see everyday. An inside source tells me that the "impossibility" of upgrading essential systems is part of what did her in...a kitchen fire on the top floor a few years ago was very difficult to extinguish. And the building as a whole is very inefficient compared to what will replace it.
 
617 said:
Are they tearing down that concrete tower to the left of the new renders?
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No -- but they will tear down Eastgate -- the Concrete Tower in the midst of the new renders [specifically directly behind what is labeled Bldg 2]
 
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