The University as Patron of Cutting Edge Architecture (Part Two) MIT Video

May 2004
01:19:03 | MIT Video | Lecture | English

About the Lecture

William Mitchell opens this session by describing MIT as an “enormously critical place.” The Stata Center, during its design and construction, fed the campus “attitude of not taking anything for granted and rethinking premises.” So it’s no surprise that debate and some sparring ensue during this spirited panel. Frank Gehry describes imbibing Talmudic learning from his grandfather, a constant inquiry which leads to the “final essence—the Golden Rule.” He believes his design process follows this rule: “being a good neighbor, respecting the architecture around me.” Robert Venturi apologizes for being grouchy, then reminds his audience that “campus is a community and not a stage set….Down with the old romantic idea of the artist as being original in order to be good.” Venturi then proclaims his love for the earliest MIT buildings. Gehry responds, “You sound like you’re fitting in well to the resurgence of fundamentalism.” The two find common ground in their respect for clients that manage to establish, in Venturi’s words, “a feeling of trust, mutual understanding” in spite of the “Byzantine complexity” of their projects. Kyong Park calls for a movement in architecture that can, post 9/11, “be part of bringing back to the future hope and possibility.” John Curry describes presiding over a series of dialectical processes in the course of bringing the Stata Center to fruition -- “between sustainability and style,” “between commons versus cloisters,” and “between the cheap and the durable.”

Watch lecture part 1

Price to pay for cutting edge architecture : MIT Sues Gehry Firm Over Stata Problems

The University as Patron of Cutting Edge Architecture (Part One) MIT Video

May 2004
01:19:03 | MIT Video | Lecture | English

About the Lecture

The opening of The Ray and Maria Stata Center, MIT’s latest innovative building, inspires this panel’s historical review of collegiate architecture projects. James Ackerman provides the longest lens, focusing first on the earliest, national trends, when buildings served as both residences and classrooms. In the 18th century, Thomas Jefferson housed different disciplines in different pavilions. The Gothic style came next, cloisters and all, to promote “monkish learning closed from the community.” Signature buildings started popping up in the late 19th and 20th centuries, driven by “the patron demanding distinction rather than blending in.” Kimberly Alexander notes that throughout MIT’s history, its architecture has always embodied the institute’s mission. On its original Boston campus, the Rogers Building housed the first instructional physics laboratory. Students of this land-grant college were treated to European teachers and their vision. When MIT landed in Cambridge, its classical buildings “embraced new technologies” such as poured concrete and factory sash windows. After World War 2, the campus welcomed projects by international stars Eero Saarinen, Alvar Aalto and I.M. Pei (‘40 MIT) to embrace all aspects of community life. Charles Vest describes both the difficulties involved in completing the Stata Center, and the opportunity he saw “to create things of historical importance in the development of MIT”-- buildings that would somehow reflect not just academics and research, but the community itself.

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