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MIT architecture

Facts and figures to sustain your inner geek

October 23, 2018

This year marks the 150th anniversary of MIT’s first course in architecture, which was one of six degrees listed in the initial course catalogue and was first taught three years after classes began in 1865. Architect William Robert Ware designed the architecture curriculum, noting, “It is the aim of this School to do what it can, in its day and generation, to insure that the Architecture of the future shall be worthy of the future.” Course IV is now the longest-running professional architecture program in the US and a world leader in the field. 

Text reads - As of 2018, the School of Architecture has produced more than 5,600 alumni
Illustration of MIT's Great Dome. Text reads - William Wurster, dean of architecture from 1944 to 1950, thought that MIT’s appearance might be improved by removing the Great Dome, though he said it would be missed.
Historic photo of woman. Text reads - Sophia Hayden Bennett was the first woman to graduate from MIT’s architecture program, in 1890.  
Illustration of Simmons Hall. Built in 2002, Simmons Hall has 5,538 windows, earning it the name The sponge.
Photo of MIT's Stata Center. Text reads - “it looks like a party of drunken robots got together to celebrate.
Text reads - I. M. Pei called the Wiesner Building “the smallest but most challenging and most interesting building I worked on at MIT.”
Historic photo of man. Text reads - Robert Taylor, the first black person to receive a degree from MIT, graduated with a BS in architecture in 1892.
Illustration of Baker Hall. Text reads: The number of room shapes on a typical floor of Baker Hall: 22.
Illustrations of The Louvre and Rockefeller Center. Text reads - Among the iconic buildings designed by MIT alumni: Rockefeller Center Raymond Hood, Class of 1903; The Louvre I. M. Pei, BArch ’40

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