GPS City GuideCambridgeStata Center

Stop 26 of 30 · Cambridge audio walking tour

Stata Center

Cambridge · 2004 · Gehry's Bold Academic Complex

What you'll hear here: about 90 seconds on Stata Center — how it came to be, who it mattered to, and what to look for while you're standing in front of it.

Opened on March 16, 2004, the Ray and Maria Stata Center is also called Building 32. This 430,000-square-foot academic complex, with a 290,000-square-foot underground garage, was designed by architect Frank Gehry for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and opened for initial occupancy on March 16, 2004. It occupies the site of MIT's former Building 20, which housed the historic MIT Radiation Laboratory, at 32 Vassar Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

MIT often refers to buildings by number rather than official names, yet this complex is usually called "Stata" or "the Stata Center" — though the building number remains essential for finding rooms. Above the fourth floor the structure splits into two distinct parts: the Gates Tower and the Dreyfoos Tower, often called "G Tower" and "D Tower. Inside you will find a number of small auditoriums and classrooms used by the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department (EECS, Course 6), other departments, and on-campus groups, along with research labs and offices of the Computer Science...

Building 20 and the Radiation Laboratory once stood on this ground at 32 Vassar Street, and above the fourth floor Gehry's replacement splits into the Gates Tower and the Dreyfoos Tower, often called G Tower and D Tower.

Where it is

Coordinates
42.36164, -71.09025
Area
Cambridge
Era
2004 · Gehry's Bold Academic Complex
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.