Stata Center
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The Ray and Maria Stata Center is a 430,000-ft² (40,000 m²) academic complex designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The building opened for initial occupancy on March 16, 2004. It sits on the site of MIT's former Building 20, which housed the historic Radiation Laboratory.
Major funding for this project was provided by Ray Stata (MIT class of 1957) and Maria Stata. It is said that Ray Stata specifically requested that this project be a "center" and not a "complex" as the phrase "Stata Complex" sounds like a psychological disorder. Other major funders include Bill Gates and Alexander Dreyfoos (MIT class of 1954). Above the fourth floor, the building splits into two distinct structures: the Gates tower and the Dreyfoos tower.
Contained within the building are the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, as well as the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Academic celebrities such as Noam Chomsky and Tim Berners-Lee have offices there.
Several MIT classes, such as 6.001, the introductory computer science course, are held inside. The Forbes Family Café is also located in the Stata Center, serving coffee and lunch to the public.
In typical MIT fashion, although the names of the funders are recorded on the building and some maps, the complex is also widely known by its number, "Building 32", and the towers have already been reduced to the initial letters of their names: the "G Tower" and the "D tower".
Though the building has won many admirers for its exterior beauty and architectural daring, it has also been criticized as insensitive to the needs of its inhabitants, poorly designed for day-to-day use, and extremely overpriced (the official cost is $283.5 million).
Occupants
- Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
- Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems
- Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
External links
- Official Stata Center Web page (http://web.mit.edu/buildings/statacenter/)
- Wired Magazine's article (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.05/mit.html) on the Stata Center
- Boston Globe article (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2004/05/04/after_buildup_mit_center_is_a_letdown) criticizing the Stata Center
- MIT's Stata Center Opens, Raises Questions about Cost Control (http://www.construction.com/NewsCenter/Headlines/AR/20040519r.asp)