Adaptive Reuse on East Campus, MIT, Cambridge, MA
An alternative urban design proposition was generated that incorporates AR. This design in some ways resembles the first phase of MIT's proposed East Campus project which calls for no demolition of buildings .
Our design focuses on integrating with the grain of Main Street and providing an anchor for a prominent entrance to Cambridge and the MIT campus via the Longfellow bridge from Boston. The scheme exploits and promotes more pedestrian activity around the Kendall Square area and takes advantage of the added foot traffic that will result from the construction (in progress) of the Ray and Maria Stata Center. Along Main street (see view looking south), the buildings stay close to the street with a dual purpose: to create a distinctive entry to East Campus and to make room for an urban plaza in the center of this building network (see view looking east). Behind the Eastgate tower, the new building stays low to the ground to maintain views for graduate students living in the structure. The scheme also proposes an AR of Dewey library and an addition of two stories on top of the structure. This approach also salvages building E56, the Dibner Center, on Memorial Drive. (see view from Memorial Drive)
Arguably, demolishing a building to open up the quad to the river for views and public use will latch a space onto Memorial Drive as actively used as Killian Court (read: very little participation and use of the space by MIT community). While we acknowledge the benefit of open space on a tight urban campus such as MIT’s, we feel that it must be insured that the space be utilized by the community. An AR reuse strategy of this site would also mean modifying the “backs” of buildings along Memorial Drive (E52, E56, E60) so that they no longer are one-sided (and River-oriented) but two-sided –addressing both the Charles River and the interior space of East Campus.
We are particularly concerned with the demolition of the old Grover Herman building (E53), known for the library it houses (Dewey). This building is 37 years old at the moment – a short life span for any building. It is a heavy concrete structure built as part of the Sloan School’s original development that also included the Eastgate housing tower (E55). Both were designed by architect Eduardo Catalano, also the architect of the Student Center in the Main Campus. |
