{"id":821069,"date":"2026-08-21T14:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/821069\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T14:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:18:15","slug":"mits-metropolitan-warehouse-transformed-for-architecture-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/821069\/","title":{"rendered":"MIT’s Metropolitan Warehouse: Transformed for Architecture School"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Metropolitan Storage Warehouse company is about to erect a building which will be, in many of its features, without parallel in this country,\u201d the Cambridge Chronicle declared in June 1894.<\/p>\n

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\"InteriorInterior of the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse in 2015.David L. Ryan<\/p>\n

Not just big, the behemoth is distinctive \u2014 or, if you will, without parallel. Certainly, this is a building that means business. Its 2-foot-thick walls loom. They forbid. \u201cFIRE PROOF\u201d proclaim large white letters on the facade. <\/p>\n

Yet that looming and forbidding and fire proofing come with a touch of romance. The MET is whimsical as well as grim. It has a tower and crenellated cornices and slit-like windows. The exterior even sports some fleurs-de-lis<\/a>. The overall effect is of a late-Victorian version of a castle or medieval fortress.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Metropolitan Storage Warehouse in 2015.David L Ryan\/Globe Staff\/file<\/p>\n

So for all that the MET\u2019s an intimidating structure, it\u2019s also easy to love. It\u2019s dismaying to think that MIT, which bought the building in 1962, considered tearing it down in the \u201970s. Think of its new role as making amends for that near blunder.<\/p>\n

The warehouse has known change. During its first two decades, several additional sections were added to it. Now it\u2019s really knowing change. Over the past few years it\u2019s been undergoing a transformation almost as startling as demolition would have been, or it is when seen from the inside. <\/p>\n

Built to house things, the MET had an interior that got minimal natural light and had column-filled, low-ceilinged spaces \u2014 \u201clittle masonry wall chambers that were storage closets,\u201d says Brian Tabolt, a senior associate at the New York architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro. <\/p>\n

\"ArchitectArchitect Brian Tabolt, left, and Ana Milja\u010dki, head of MIT’s department of architecture. Pat Greenhouse\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

Now the building\u2019s purpose is changing \u2014 and changing dramatically. It\u2019s welcoming people, which means putting a premium on light, high ceilings, and open floor plans. Or as Ana Milja\u010dki, head of MIT\u2019s department of architecture, succinctly describes the MET\u2019s transformation, \u201cmaking it usable by humans.\u201d To meet those new needs, the building isn\u2019t so much being turned inside out as outside in. <\/p>\n

The new residents are particularly alert to issues of light, height, and openness, since they\u2019re the faculty, staff, and students of SA+P. The MET will also be home to MIT\u2019s department of urban studies and planning, its Center for Real Estate, the Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism, Project Manus (focused on campus makerspaces), and the Morningside Academy for Design. <\/p>\n

Since 1938, the architecture school has had its quarters about two-10ths of a mile down Massachusetts Avenue, hard by the institute\u2019s famed \u201cInfinite Corridor.\u201d<\/a> That\u2019s prime campus real estate. The MET is prime real estate in a different, outward-facing, way. <\/p>\n

\"WoodWood shop inside the MIT School of Architecture and Planning’s new home, inside the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse.Pat Greenhouse\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

\u201cThe special aspect of the new home for [SA+P] is the sheer scale and its location there on Mass. Ave.,\u201d says William Rawn, of William Rawn Associates and a 1979 graduate of the school. The firm is best known for Seiji Ozawa Hall, at Tanglewood.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing from Harvard Square, with a mish-mash of retail things along Mass Ave., all of a sudden there\u2019s what is arguably the most powerful and prominent building of that whole lineup. Its prominence is a very important signal that you\u2019ve entered MIT and that the School of Architecture and Planning has a central role in that prominence.\u201d <\/p>\n

Faculty and staff moved in on Aug. 17. The first day of classes is Sept. 8. That day there\u2019ll be a ceremonial procession to the MET from MIT\u2019s Rogers Building, where the Infinite Corridor begins (or, depending on your orientation, ends). The official dedication is Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

Although MIT declines to disclose the renovation\u2019s cost, it\u2019s safe to say that a new building would have been both considerably less expensive and taken far less time to complete. But using an existing building, even one that posed so many challenges, was essential, says Milja\u010dki. <\/p>\n

\"AuditoriumAuditorium space with retractable seating inside the MIT School of Architecture and Planning’s new Metropolitan Storage Warehouse home.Pat Greenhouse\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sets us on the path to think about the built environment differently,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have a building we can use didactically to speak about the way in which we need to shift the center of the discipline toward preservation, toward thinking about the planet. So that will be phenomenal to be able to, you know, be reminded of how such a building can look and work and be transformed.\u201d More than just a new home for SA+P, the MET\u2019s an ongoing lesson and constant reminder for students.<\/p>\n

After the warehouse closed, MIT considered making it into a dorm. Nothing came of that. In 2019, after the decision was made to put SA+P there, DS+R was brought in. Bostonians are familiar with the firm\u2019s design for the Institute of Contemporary Art. Other high-profile DS+R projects include New York\u2019s High Line<\/a> elevated linear park, the most recent renovation of the Museum of Modern Art, and Los Angeles\u2019s Broad Museum. <\/p>\n

Architecturally, MIT is \u201ca living museum,\u201d Tabolt says. Architects who\u2019ve designed campus buildings include Alvar Aalto, Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Frank Gehry, and Steven Holl. \u201cThe bar was high for experimentation and for speaking to that legacy,\u201d Tabolt says.<\/p>\n

\"ViewView of the interior of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning’s new home in the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse.Pat Greenhouse\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

He remembers his first visit to the MET and the conflicting feelings it inspired. \u201cWith the siting and the location of the building, it was like, wow, this is an amazing opportunity. You could see the scale of what we were tackling from the beginning. So that was great. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then you go inside and realize what we were up against. \u2026 The building was incredibly segmented, the interior hallways unlit. You could imagine the spaces as prison cells and it wouldn\u2019t have been too much of a stretch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Redesigning the MET is an example of adaptive reuse<\/a>: taking an existing building and repurposing it while retaining as much of the building\u2019s original character as possible. The basic question was how much adapting was allowable to make reuse feasible while still keeping the building recognizable. <\/p>\n

A crucial decision, made in conjunction with the Cambridge Historical Commission, was twofold: major changes with the interior were allowable, even unavoidable; while alteration should be kept to a minimum with the exterior. <\/p>\n

\"ViewView of the north side of the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse, new home to MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning.Pat Greenhouse\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

The most notable exception is on the MET\u2019s north side, the one facing toward Central Square. Large, multi-story windows both allow in natural light and make for a striking textural effect, with the juxtaposition of glass and brick. On the other three sides, changes are much less apparent. The fleurs-de-lis and old signage remain. <\/p>\n

There was considerable back and forth between DS+R and the historical commission during the design process, but both sides express satisfaction with the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe adaptive reuse of that building,\u201d says commission chairman Charles Russell, \u201cis one of the peak experiences of my career, and I\u2019ve been here more than 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adaptive reuse, Russell adds, \u201coften seems to bring out the best in designers. When they rise to the challenge we get a wonderful product. This rises to the top of the list.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the interior changes are invisible: installing seismic protections; moving all electrical equipment to the second floor as a climate-resilience measure; reducing the overall area to a little less than 200,000 square feet. Others are highly visible: the abundance of natural light; the expanse of communal spaces; brick cutaway arches revealing the old interior\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

\"StaircaseStaircase inside the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse, new home of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning.Pat Greenhouse\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

The most striking change may be a set of stairs that form a kind of spine for the interior. The stairs serve as a sort of ascending corridor, alluding to its infinite counterpart from SA+P\u2019s old neighborhood.<\/p>\n

As attractive as the interior is, the reasoning behind the various changes has even more to do with pedagogy than aesthetics. \u201cAs spaces,\u201d Milja\u010dki says, \u201cour studios used to be a lot more like labs, but now they are grand and full of light and celebratory in a way that hopefully enables better work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Feeney can be reached at mark.feeney@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Metropolitan Storage Warehouse company is about to erect a building which will be, in many of its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-821069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}