This laboratory has been the world center for the development of computer technology in the past 40 years and is likely to remain so in the future. It will now be housed in the Ray and Maria Stat Center, named after the founder of the semiconductor firm Enalog Devices, a 1957 MIT graduate and his wife.
Frank Gehry's project cost the institute $ 280 million. Instead of an old building from 1959 with a confusing plan, non-opening windows and poorly functioning ventilation, computer geniuses received a modern complex, which is not only distinguished by the most original design, but also designed taking into account all the needs of future "inhabitants".
Above the three-story main volume are two six-story towers, named after Alex Dreyfus, Jr., a 1954 graduate who did a lot to develop photography and invested $ 15 million in construction, and in honor of Bill Gates, who donated $ 20 million.
The complex includes 19 research laboratories, many of which have double-height experiment rooms and spiral staircases. There are also classrooms for seminars, exhibition spaces and the institute's first outdoor amphitheater.
The Stat Center has a kindergarten, gym and bar.
Next to the Gates Tower is a 350-seat auditorium with cameras linking it to Singapore and British Cambridge. The board in this auditorium is 15 meters long.
Approximately 40% of all space is dedicated to spaces for joint work of members of various research groups - a kind of social experiment for the architect, since in the old building different laboratories not only did not cooperate, but were known to be hostile to each other.
