MIT New 450-bed Residence Hall | 121 Vassar St. | Cambridge

bigpicture7

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Details announced for MIT's new 450-bed residence hall on Vassar St.

Some details:
Set to open in Fall of 2020
Architect: Michael Maltzan Architecture (Los Angeles, CA)

Prelim design looks like:
MIT_VassarDormRendering_V01_003cc.jpg


To be going here:
Aerial_WestGarage_CHarting_crp.jpg


Designed by the firm that brought forth this (in LA):
04e542663ab4ea36d1c1cba424f759af.jpg


Project site:
http://capitalprojects.mit.edu/projects/new-residence-hall

Previous related news stories:
http://news.mit.edu/2017/west-garage-close-september-2017-undergraduate-residence-0629
http://news.mit.edu/2017/west-garage-site-identified-new-undergraduate-residence-hall-0208
 
Holy shit it's fucking hideous. Please tell me that's just the massing model?!

LA thing is kinda cool though.
 
Holy shit it's fucking hideous. Please tell me that's just the massing model?!

LA thing is kinda cool though.

The first sketch of any sort released, so I am sure it's just a massing model. Project is listed as "in design" on the project website.

They are strictly committed to keeping undergrad dorms as lowrises per the project spec. Grad dorms are totally different story. But we should expect this thing to be a large landscraper like Simmons Hall, regardless of exact final form.

Target opening of Fall 2020 means a pretty sporty schedule.
I'd expect the garage to be coming down ASAP.
 
...but I thought MIT had enough of the LA Architects (i.e Frank Gehry)....
 
Gross.
I hoped MIT was done with this garbage. Enough of this already lines Vassar.
 
Maltzan is a current target of architectural fanboy/girls these days. Just like Gehry and Holl were when they planted their works in our backyard. The results will be similar. It will be a loud quick splash and then everyone will regret their choices.

cca
 
Maltzan is a current target of architectural fanboy/girls these days. Just like Gehry and Holl were when they planted their works in our backyard. The results will be similar. It will be a loud quick splash and then everyone will regret their choices.

cca

Strangely, though, they never seem to remember. It's hard for me to see how, given how often they must have to look at the hideous, dysfunctional products of their prior mistakes.
 
Yesss. Bring on the crazy architecture in this corridor, I love it.

EDIT: I thought the LA one was what was being built. The MIT massing model is decidedly more tame (and lame).
 
A high ratio of MIT's architecture is abysmal... and what is currently on offer indicates nothing great or surprising will emerge from the halls possessing the world's most gifted minds that would begin to change that anytime soon.

What a joke.
 
I am an eternal optimist by nature. Its just who I am. So despite totally agreeing with y'all about the signs pointing in a not good direction here...I am nonetheless hopeful that Maltzan will pull out something really interesting and functional. This loonnnnngggg parcel is quite the canvas to paint on; I have to think there's at least a possibility this could turn out really cool.
 
I read the thread title as "New MIT 450 FOOT", opened said thread, and then saw a rendering of an ugly 450 foot landscaper. What a letdown.
 
I read the thread title as "New MIT 450 FOOT", opened said thread, and then saw a rendering of an ugly 450 foot landscaper. What a letdown.

It's MIT what did you expect, bold innovation? For whatever reason those guys don't have an ounce of pride in their modern architecture.
 
This is bad even for Maltzan.

(I'd take a bridge though.)
 
That stretch of Vassar is a disconnected backwater and that isn't going to change. I don't care much what it looks like because few people are going to see this thing. I'm just happy they are putting up a new dorm.
 
I'm told that the rendering is (unfortunately) very close to what is being proposed.
 
That stretch of Vassar is a disconnected backwater and that isn't going to change...

I wouldn't quite go that far...

Off the main drag, sure.

But ever since they put the new sidewalks and wonderful protected cycle track, I use it all them time as part of a commute that goes over the BU bridge. Were they actually to put some ground floor activation along here, I would definitely stop from time to time to grab a coffee or whatever.

But, yea, as of now there's absolutely no activation.
I'm just saying: it's not an aesthetic dump / and it's a good commute route / therefore it need not be a "disconnected backwater"...if it is that, then it's because of underutilization.
 

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