Page 39 - College Planning & Management, October 2017

Facility Focus AUDITORIUMS AND PERFORMANCE SPACE
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
W97
THE MASSACHUSETTS Institute of Technology (MIT)
has opened its first dedicated performing arts facility on its Cambridge, MA, campus. The completion of W97, a newly designed building for MIT’s vibrant Theater Arts program, signals a strong commitment to this central component
of the Institute’s arts curriculum that has outgrown its current dispersed facilities. Enrollment in theater arts classes has more than doubled at MIT since 2012.
The Theater Arts program, which had pre- viously been spread among five small shared campus facilities, will now be consolidated within a major dedicated 25,000-square-foot building — designed by designLAB Archi-
tects of Boston — which has taken shape within the walls of a former warehouse that had been slated for demolition.
MIT students and faculty now have a two-story flexible black box theater with 150-180 seats, state-of-the-art rehearsal spaces and design studios, offices and dressing rooms. The building was designed with production in mind and to maximize the possibilities for experimentation with new theater technologies. Other studios
in the building provide space for smaller performances, faculty and student work- shops, rehearsals and classes in theatrical practice, design and technical arts.
The new facility will allow for con- tinued development of a theater research
program focused on experimental works and performance, and potentially a small, focused graduate program. Moreover, the MIT Theater Arts program will now be on par with comparable programs at peer institutions.
Sustainability was also a project prior- ity, with the goal of achieving LEED Gold certification. Sustainable elements include new windows and roofing, a solar-ready building, LED lighting with occupancy sensors and upgraded HVAC systems.
MIT President L. Rafael Reif will dedi- cate the building on November 16, 2017, in a celebration that will highlight the range of both the building and the programs in Music and Theater Arts. CPM
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