Designed by Peabody & Stearns and built in 1895, the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse is one of the oldest buildings in the neighborhood and is listed 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 is proposing to redevelop the Metropolitan Warehouse building as a center of interdisciplinary design research and education as well as a new home for the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P). Elements under consideration include new classroom and design studio space that would significantly increase MIT’s exhibition capacity for arts and design programming, new faculty offices, and new areas for meetings and collaborative activities. The building might also feature a new center for the arts and an independent community makerspace that would expand the design and fabrication facilities available to the campus.

The proposed redevelopment of the structure would endeavor to preserve the historic architecture while creating spaces that enhance the interdisciplinary interactions between SA+P and other schools at MIT. Retail space and a theater might also be included on the ground floor.

“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.”