It has been called crazy and labeled "Toontown." Passersby refer to it as the building that looks as though it's going to collapse. And Boston Globe architecture critic Robert Campbell has described it as "a drunken barn dance as it might be represented in a Disney cartoon." But no matter how it is characterized, MIT's new Ray and Maria Stata Center for Computer, Information, and Intelligence Sciences will not be overlooked.

"We understood that this would be controversial," says John Guttag, head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). Staff, faculty, and students from one of the department's labs-the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory-will occupy about 80 percent of the building. "It's not because we wanted it to be unusual," Guttag says. "It's because unusual' is required to support the desired functions."

The 66,000-square-meter structure, which will be dedicated May 7, was originally intended only to house about 1,000 people from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. The computer scientists and robotics researchers, in particular, had been occupying leased space off campus for some 40 years. In 1997, when quality-of-life issues arose on campus, such as the need for more student space, the building's scope and budget were expanded, and public areas were added. The resulting $283.5 million structure is the Institute's largest building project since the neoclassical edifices surrounding Killian Court were completed in 1916.

Designed by world-renowned architect Frank O. Gehry, whose rsum includes structures such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the building meets a complicated set of goals. Foremost of these, it brings the computer scientists in the EECS department back to campus and puts them in close proximity to the electrical engineers in Building 36, which is adjacent to the Stata Center on Vassar Street. It also pays homage to Building 20 (the site's former structure) and creates new public spaces, including a northeast gateway into campus where none existed before. This gateway will help open the Institute to the surrounding community-particularly to the technology companies that have sprung up on that side of campus in recent years. And finally, the Stata Center encourages interactions between researchers, provides flexibility for multiple uses, and stands as a symbol of MIT's ideals.

Building 20's Legacy

The Stata Center's story begins with Building 20, a ramshackle, timber-framed, World War IIera complex set up as a temporary facility for military research. Building 20 first housed the Radiation Laboratory-the group that developed radar. Over time, it held MIT's computer scientists, electrical engineers, linguists, philosophers, and other groups. Its shared spaces encouraged an unprecedented amount of collaboration, which led to the development of atomic clocks, underwater cameras, and solar vehicles.

Building 20 earned the affectionate moniker "the magical incubator," and it lived up to its reputation even when it became so dilapidated it had to be demolished in 1999. In fact, the building's poor condition actually encouraged innovation and free thinking. Guttag explains: "Everyone knew it was going to come down, so you could do anything you wanted to it. It was a space where, if you wanted to find space for a project, you could find it." Researchers were known to punch holes in the walls as needed, and this freedom meant there were very few limits to their research.

In the 1990s, it had become clear that the "temporary" facility no longer met MIT's needs. It was too dangerous and cramped for people to work effectively within it. Administrators decided to replace it with a structure big enough to house the computer science half of the EECS department, which had grown over the decades to become MIT's largest department. The linguists and philosophers, who had remained in Building 20 to the bitter end, would also need new accommodations.

In 1997, to help achieve these goals, Analog Devices cofounder Ray Stata '57 and his wife Maria gave MIT $25 million-then the largest building project donation in Institute history-to build a new center for these intelligence sciences. With that, the new building's life began. Later, Alexander Dreyfoos '54, a member of the MIT Corporation, gave $15 million, and Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and his wife Melinda gave $20 million in exchange for naming rights to the buildings' two towers.

From the early stages of the project, the idea was to build something with iconic value. "We wanted the architecture of the Stata Center to be as bold and imaginative as the intellectual daring, creativity, and excellence it was designed to support," says Institute president Charles M. Vest HM. "And we wanted it to foster the kind of free-thinking collaboration among its varied occupants that was a hallmark of its predecessor, Building 20-but with the added stimulus of a visionary design."