Ray '57, SM '58 and Maria Stata Center
Gehry-Designed Building Enhances Campus
Stata Center. Photo: Ming-Tai Huh '02.
"What is exciting is that we started simply with the idea of bringing all the laboratories, faculty, and students together in a new building project. But this has evolved into a vision of an architectural design that will catalyze the interaction of students and faculty and stimulate invention and exchange of ideas across many disciplines. Even in this age of instant electronic communication, there is no substitute for the casual, creative, personal contact that this new complex will facilitate."
-Ray Stata '57, SM '58, founder and chairman of the board of Analog Devices
Planning for the Ray and Maria Stata Center began some 15 years ago when MIT completed the Master Plan for the development of the northeast sector of the campus. The design of the Stata Center was governed by MIT's major planning principles, which call for buildings that are generous in spirit, have the flexibility to meet the changing needs of an academic environment, and are durable in materials and in assembly.
The Stata Center replaces MIT's beloved Building 20, a "temporary" timber-framed building constructed in World War II to house the famed Radiation Lab. Building 20 continued to house departmental offices, labs, shops, teaching spaces, and model railroads until it was demolished in 1999 to make way for the Stata Center; its residents happily christened it the Magical Incubator in honor of the many productive activities, both official and unofficial, that it had sheltered over the decades.
After a thorough selection process, MIT chose Gehry Partners to design the Stata Center. The firm's use of physical models as the primary tool in the design process breaks down the traditional barriers of communication between architect and client. The layout of the firm's design studio, and the clear articulation of its creative process, felt immediately familiar to the future users of the building. Walking into Frank Gehry's studio was like walking into their own research spaces.
Stata Center. Photo: Maggy Bruzelius.
The Stata Center houses office and research space for the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Conference and meeting spaces support these functions. At the ground level, an auditorium and classrooms provide 600 seats for teaching activities, with an additional 200 seats in two student workspaces located one level below. A cafe, a pub, a fitness center, and social spaces enhance the academic environment. A childcare center provides care for the children of students, staff, and faculty. Underground parking is provided for 700 cars and a large shipping and receiving facility serves the northeast sector of campus. Outdoor areas include terraces and a raised garden for conversation and quiet study as well as an amphitheater for gatherings and campus activities.
In addition to the traditional studies of context, view axes, pedestrian flow, wind analysis, and shadow studies, Frank Gehry's design process invited direct involvement from the building's future users. They were challenged to think about their own working methods, to analyze and question their own needs, and to explore new ways of organizing their work environment. The goal was to create spaces in which the mind would be free, where walls could be moved, rooms reconfigured, and students and faculty alike could benefit from the best and most stimulating work environment.
Image: MIT News Office.
Gehry began the design of the Stata Center working primarily with three dimensional physical models. Many of these models included neighboring buildings and the community as a whole, allowing the design of the Stata Center to evolve in response to its surroundings.
Other models addressed interior function and flexibility of use. Models were built to different scales so that potential design solutions could be evaluated on different levels. Throughout the design process, the contractors evaluated constructability and cost, confirmed that the building would fulfill their future needs, and MIT ensured that the building would be easily maintained and that it met MIT's high standards of quality.
The resulting design is striking and remarkably unique from the outside as well as from the inside. From the creation of two-story neighborhoods in the towers to the fourth floor town center, the design of the Stata Center's interior provides opportunities for interaction. Ease of movement, extensive natural light, unique interior views, and floor plates that accommodate a variety of future uses and work group sizes were all driving forces behind the design of the Stata Center's unique yet entirely functional interior.
The design of the Ray and Maria Stata Center presents a unique and intriguing architectural composition to the community and provides a functional yet flexible work environment for students and faculty. The Stata Center's seamless union of form and function is at the heart of what could be called one of Frank Gehry's greatest designs.
By Chris Termin
Published 2004
