SOM's new Schwarzman College of Computing opens at MIT

2024-05-01T14:02:00-04:00

The new home for the recently established MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been completed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

What will be a research hub for AI and other disciplines in the computing sciences offers 185,000 square feet of labs, collaborative spaces, classrooms, and faculty areas inside a shingled profile that defines two eight-story pavilions.

Image credit: Dave Burk © SOM

The structure's design was limited by an existing railroad track running along the site’s north axis, creating the need for a 44-foot bridge that connects to either volume across three levels. After entering its oak-finished triple-height lobby from a central plaza area, engineers and researchers have space to explore flexible arrangements in the offices along its perimeter on Vassar Street.

Image credit: Dave Burk © SOM

The building includes social kitchens, a large 250-seat lecture ...

The Power of the Facade: French 2D explains how facades are punctuations on the urban landscape

2019-05-24T19:03:00-04:00

What's in a facade? For those outside the architecture and design profession, the function, importance, and commonality facades play in the built environment might not be so clear. But the exterior wall, or "face" of a building, in fact, plays a crucial role in conveying a building's structural design as well as the artistic intentions of the designer.

Because the look of facades has dramatically changed over time to become more sleek and streamlined, thanks to material exploration and advances in building technology, it's easy to forget the amount of detail, and intention that goes into design.

New York by Gehry. Image courtesy of New York by Gehry

Tara Theatre designed by Aedas. Image by Philip Vile

Despite this trend, especially within bustling urban landscapes, facades create opportunities for buildings to be loud, imposing, simple, or decorative. Regardless of their visual intention, however, facades also have the power to prompt the general public to look and notice the built...

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SOM's new Schwarzman College of Computing opens at MIT

The Power of the Facade: French 2D explains how facades are punctuations on the urban landscape