May 2004 | Eyesore

Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.

The crumpled village look by Frank Gehry in a confection called the Stata Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a computer tech facility. A theme park on angel dust, it has some demented charms from this angle. But look a little closer on the street side. . . .

Note the tumbling razor blade effect over the entrance. Getting inside is a close shave.

And then there's the building's attitude to the street. The windows on the ground floor are the same as the windows on the floors above. The life of the street has no special meaning as far as the building is concerned. Note the landscaping beds intended to compensate for this design failure. By the way, all of Vassar Street (designated as MIT's new "main street") has the same lifeless character. Check out another miserable stretch of the street:

Blank walls, mingy industrial sash windows, feeble string courses. Buildings with no generosity to the public realm. Believe it or not, MIT actually has a pretty big school of architecture and urban design. What do they do there?