Project Description
MIT’s historic campus integrates innovative building technologies, massing, and interior layouts to support the sciences. The “Main Group,” this 1.1M gsf enclave, required extensive upgrades and adaptation for its 21st-century programs. ABA’s LEED Gold renovation and expansion of the Simons Building for Mathematics is the first major renewal of a $400M initiative, a prototype for other Main Group buildings. With river and skyline views, the Simons Building serves MIT’s largest faculty and undergraduate enrollment. ABA’s design provides approximately 300 workplaces and over 30 new classrooms, seminar spaces, and gathering and collaboration spaces for 142 faculty and administrators, and over 450 undergraduates and graduate students. The 93,000 sf project included an extensive restoration of the historic façade; window replication and replacement; accessibility and code upgrades; and a 13,500 sf rooftop addition to the original building. The addition adds a full floor of offices, gathering spaces, and graduate resources. The penthouse, with its stainless steel colonnade, glass expanses, and panoramic views, responds to the classical base with a contemporary and transparent companion, preserving valued open space and optimizing resources.