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Designed by Frederic Pope (first section) and Peabody & Stearns (subsequent additions), the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse — one of the oldest buildings in the neighborhood — was originally constructed in 1895. The building is listed on the State Register of Historic Places and has been determined eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. With its square brick tower and crenellated corbelled cornice, it resembles a medieval castle on a city street corner.
MIT’s adaptive reuse of the Metropolitan Warehouse building will redevelop it as a center of interdisciplinary design research and education and as a new home for the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P). The building will also house a flagship makerspace, an independent and collaborative creative space envisioned by Project Manus as a substantial addition to the MIT Makersystem that will expand the design and fabrication facilities available to the campus. As a whole, the reimagined Met Warehouse will include new classrooms, design studio space that will significantly increase MIT’s capacity for arts and design programming, new faculty offices, and areas for meetings and collaborative activities.
The adaptive reuse of the structure will endeavor to preserve the building’s historic character while leveraging and valorizing its existing spaces and infrastructure to serve the needs of current and future programming. A critical design element is the introduction of new floor “platforms” to provide necessary high-bay program space and to allow natural light to penetrate core building areas. The strategic integration of old and new will enhance interdisciplinary interactions between SA+P and other schools at MIT while providing space for an auditorium and other possible ground-floor amenities.
“The renovation of the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse is intended to generate new opportunities for research, teaching, and innovation at the Institute,” says Provost Martin A. Schmidt. “I look forward to seeing faculty and students, across many disciplines, use the new space to push their fields into the future.”
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Project Team
Architects: Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), lead designer, New York, NY; and Leers Weinzapfel Associates, Boston, MA
Construction manager: Shawmut Design and Construction, Boston, MA
MIT Team: Nicole Bernabei, Brian Donnellan, Morgan Pinney
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In the News
- Met Warehouse renovation planning takes an exciting next step; Community-driven selection of project architect opens opportunities to imagine new life for historic building as future home for School of Architecture and Planning as well as a campus-wide makerspace run by Project Manus; MIT News, December 14, 2018
- MIT Collaboration with Dar Group supports the future of architecture, planning, and design; MIT News, June 26, 2018
- Metropolitan Storage Warehouse is potential new location for School of Architecture and Planning; Historic building would create “design hub” for MIT, with benefits for surrounding community; MIT News, June 14, 2018
- MIT announces new Makerspace with support from Victor and William Fung Foundation; MIT News, May 31, 2016