Thursday, May 6
Digital building practice symposium
Gehry Technologies and the School of Architecture and Planning will present "Building the MIT Stata Center: A Symposium on Digital Practice" in the Stata Center's Kirsch Auditorium starting at 9 a.m. The event will bring together professionals from the architectural, engineering and construction teams on the Stata Center, along with academic faculty working in the field of digital practice, to discuss ways in which digital tools are changing professional practice. Seating is limited; attendees must register online. For more information or to register, go to http://www.gehrytechnologies.com/mit.
Friday, May 7
Dedication festivities
The formal dedication ceremony for the Stata Center will be at 1:30 p.m., followed by a reception and tours at 2:30 p.m. and a performance in the building's Dertouzos Amphitheater at 4:00 p.m. The ceremony is open to invited guests only, although it will be broadcast on MIT Cable. There will be overflow seating in all four classrooms on the Stata Center's Student Street as well as video monitors along Student Street and in the cafe.
Copies of "Building Stata" by Nancy Joyce, senior project manager for construction in MIT's Department of Facilities (MIT Press) will be available at the dedication. The book contains hundreds of photographs and architectural drawings that chronicle the facility's planning and construction process.
Demonstrations and tours
A reception will take place throughout the Student Street after the ceremony and is open to guests as well as the MIT community. The entire Stata Center will be open for the community to tour informally from 2:30 to 4 p.m. The Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory will give demonstrations in their areas of the Stata Center; information on these locations will be included in a map that will be available at the dedication.
Saturday, May 8
Wasserman Forum on university architecture
Stata Center architect Frank Gehry will be among the panelists featured in "The University as Patron of Cutting-Edge Architecture." The event, presented by the List Visual Arts Center (LVAC) as its annual Max Wasserman Forum on Contemporary Art, will take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Room 26-100.
The discussion will feature Gehry; Steven Holl, the architect for Simmons Hall; and prize-winning architect Robert Venturi. William Mitchell, head of the MIT Media Lab and professor of architecture and media arts and sciences, will moderate. Respondents will be artist and architect Kyong Park, Executive Vice President John R. Curry and President Charles M. Vest. Kimberley Alexander, former curator of architecture at the MIT Museum, and architectural historian James Ackerman will discuss the architectural history of MIT.
The Max Wasserman Forum on Contemporary Art was established in memory of Wasserman (Class of 1935), a founding member of the Council of the Arts at MIT. This public forum addresses critical issues in contemporary art and culture through the participation of renowned scholars, artists and arts professionals.
Online reservations are required (limit two per request). Send your name, e-mail address and the name of your guest, if applicable, to wasserman@mit.edu.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on May 5, 2004.
