Project overview: Over the past two decades, Kendall Square has developed from an area of parking lots and industrial brown fields into a new center within the Boston/Cambridge metropolis. This has created an opportunity to define and transform the threshold between East Cambridge and MIT’s campus at Main Street with a gateway and a new public open space. The plan included a commission for a new gateway canopy that connects Main Street and the new open space—hosting the MBTA Kendall/MIT subway stop. The Kendall/MIT Gateway creates a threshold that acknowledges the depth of the block from Main Street all the way into the campus, a condition that few gateways have historically been asked to address. The infrastructure of the project consists of the subway rail line, the concourse underground, as well as three modes of access to the street level. To maintain the porosity of the site, the idea was to use the thinnest possible columns, each rising 25 feet from the ground. Conceived as a canopy with many intricate parts, the tolerances for making such bespoke connections posed many challenges. Our outreach to the maritime and aviation industry turned out to be the most critical and practical path towards the coordination of a complex set of systems into one single buildable shell.
Project location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Firm name: NADAAA
Architect of Record: Perkins&Will
Completion: 2022
Jury comments: The structure is quite attractive.
Client: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Images/Photographer(s): John Horner Project or Construction Manager: Turner Construction Company Civil Engineer: Nitsch Engineering Structural: SGH, McNamara Salvia Mechanical: AHA Consulting Engineers Electrical: AHA Consulting Engineers Plumbing: AHA Consulting Engineers Landscaping: Hargreaves Jones Lighting: SoSo Limited, Lam Partners
