MIT East Campus - Kendall Square Gateway | Cambridge

“MIT’s got one chance to build Kendall Square – one chance to get it right. And if they don’t get it right the students will go to Stanford and they won’t come to MIT, and that would be terrible. We have to be really, really careful with each of these buildings.”

Um, right....Mom, Dad you're going to have to pay for Stanford because MIT has that triggering, featureless cantilever building!

These guys might even be right to a degree but they give off so much archi-gas their points get lost in a thick, pretentious fog.
 
Brad Plaid said:
“MIT’s got one chance to build Kendall Square – one chance to get it right. And if they don’t get it right the students will go to Stanford and they won’t come to MIT, and that would be terrible. We have to be really, really careful with each of these buildings.”

Um, right....Mom, Dad you're going to have to pay for Stanford because MIT has that triggering, featureless cantilever building!

These guys might even be right to a degree but they give off so much archi-gas their points get lost in a thick, pretentious fog.
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Yes, the hyperbole undermines what is otherwise sound criticism. There are likely students and parents that do factor in the overall aesthetics of the campus and surroundings. And, while iconic, the MIT dome and Killian Court can only make up for so much bad architecture.
 
tangent said:
Yes, the hyperbole undermines what is otherwise sound criticism. There are likely students and parents that do factor in the overall aesthetics of the campus and surroundings. And, while iconic, the MIT dome and Killian Court can only make up for so much bad architecture.
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No redeeming value to the MIT chapel? And plenty of 18 year olds have the type of taste where they would like the Stata Center.
 
dwash59 said:
No redeeming value to the MIT chapel? And plenty of 18 year olds have the type of taste where they would like the Stata Center.
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The chapel
Kresge Auditorium
Several of the undergrad dorms
The Main Group (great dome/Killian court/surrounding bldgs)
The Media Lab for sure
A few of the new lab buildings look just fine
E52 & E62
Walker Memorial
Stata Center (to each their own)

...there are just as many studs as there are duds in the MIT architectural portfolio
...and the quirky eclectic mix is exactly what MIT is after...they want it to clash with stuffy Harvard down the street (b/c you can bet your bottom dollar students on a campus tour to Cambridge visit both)
 
tangent said:
Yes, the hyperbole undermines what is otherwise sound criticism. There are likely students and parents that do factor in the overall aesthetics of the campus and surroundings. And, while iconic, the MIT dome and Killian Court can only make up for so much bad architecture.
Click to expand...

I doubt it's about individual buildings as much as spaces, views, and general aesthetics. Harvard has that in spades - much of the campus is a nice place to be and makes you feel like you're somewhere prestigious (not that it needs the help). MIT probably has that indoors - you're walking past labs where famous discoveries were made and such - but not outdoors. The individually interesting buildings they have aren't set well and Killian Court, with its skyline view, is the only really striking space on campus.

They're actually trying to address that somewhat with this project and creating new greenspace, but it's undermined if all the buildings lining it don't add to the experience. MIT does value eclectic architecture, but this project isn't even eclectic. It's just boring and confusing and disappointing.
 
Brad Plaid said:
“MIT’s got one chance to build Kendall Square – one chance to get it right. And if they don’t get it right the students will go to Stanford and they won’t come to MIT, and that would be terrible. We have to be really, really careful with each of these buildings.”

Um, right....Mom, Dad you're going to have to pay for Stanford because MIT has that triggering, featureless cantilever building!

These guys might even be right to a degree but they give off so much archi-gas their points get lost in a thick, pretentious fog.
Click to expand...

tangent said:
Yes, the hyperbole undermines what is otherwise sound criticism. There are likely students and parents that do factor in the overall aesthetics of the campus and surroundings. And, while iconic, the MIT dome and Killian Court can only make up for so much bad architecture.
Click to expand...

Making the comparison to Stanford is only partly ridiculous... I think it comes out sounding obnoxious, but the aesthetic appeal of a campus is a major draw, and a major detractor if it's ugly. MIT does indeed have "one chance" here — they could make Kendall awesome, vibrant and approachable, or they could just extend the cold, soullessness another half mile down.
 
FK4 said:
Making the comparison to Stanford is only partly ridiculous... I think it comes out sounding obnoxious, but the aesthetic appeal of a campus is a major draw, and a major detractor if it's ugly. MIT does indeed have "one chance" here — they could make Kendall awesome, vibrant and approachable, or they could just extend the cold, soullessness another half mile down.
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I found the comparison with Stanford pretty comical. I am not a fan of the suburban sprawl of the Stanford campus with more acres of parking than buildings. It can take you 30 minutes to DRIVE across the campus with all the traffic.

And I will take the two miles of Charles River frontage, and Boston views from the MIT campus over anything you can see from Stanford.
 
^Ive never been to Stanford but people say it's beautiful. From pictures, it looks pretty but also suburban. In any case, Kendall could be much, much better than it is, and I'm glad the city, for once, seems to care about that.
 
Question - the one saving grace of this build to me is/was that, in the previous renders, the stilt and the bottom of the cantilevered section were both LED screens. Does anyone know if that is part of the design, or just an overzealous render? Because I thought that actually affords a lot of cool opportunities.

(The rest of the building is, as pointed out, exceptionally bland.)
 
FK4 said:
^Ive never been to Stanford but people say it's beautiful. From pictures, it looks pretty but also suburban. In any case, Kendall could be much, much better than it is, and I'm glad the city, for once, seems to care about that.
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Looking at the buildings, it can be pretty.

Turn around and look at the acres of parking and it is comical.
 
Justin7 said:
I have never been there either but I'm not seeing this on google maps.
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Does not really show on the map. Much of the area around Campus Drive, Palm Drive north of the oval, Museum Drive, all around the stadium is parking. If it not green or a building on the map, it is probably parking.
 
Stanford's pretty in a bland-suburban-California sort of way, but no one's picking it over MIT for the architecture. The weather might be a different story.
 
I have high hopes that those damn power lines will be buried!
 
FK4 said:
Nope, we don't do that in Boston.
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Trust me, I rarely see overhead wires whenever I'm in town; maybe the outer neighborhoods have the powerlines but not intown. Atlanta, however, is littered with every size and shape of every power pole imaginable right in the main business and shopping areas with the exception of some areas on Peachtree St. They're an absolute eyesore.
 
^
Yeah, I was being a little sarcastic… But there's plenty of projects where you think that powerlines will be put under ground but that doesn't get done .
 
FK4 said:
^
Yeah, I was being a little sarcastic… But there's plenty of projects where you think that powerlines will be put under ground but that doesn't get done .
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I too share a sincere dislike for the aesthetics of power lines, especially in dense neighborhoods and districts where they become overburdened... people spend millions on architecture, posh communities demand attention to every little detail, and then they just shrug when utilities stick a toxic chemical infused dead tree along the street and run some mishmash of wires haphazardly along it with giant rusting transformers, repeaters and other apparatus hanging off the sides. Eventually they often spend more time effort and money to plant real trees underneath with the predictable result that they will have to prune the tree around the wires so it ends up looking like some unhealthy poorly cut giant bonsai.

Reducing the cost, complexity of running power lines under city streets and sidewalks would be a great thing for MIT to work on.
 
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