The building is clad in MIT’s familiar buff brick. The main façade incorporates a large translucent panel, with a horizontal grid similar to the windows, which can be removed to install or remove large machinery. A complex array of exhausts and equipment at the roofline is unified by three prominent circular air intakes. The aluminum-paneled penthouse is recessed to reduce its visual impact
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Vassar Street Cogeneration Plant
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Completion Date
1995
Size
5,500 gsf
Construction Cost
$37 million
Awards
Boston Society of Architects: Honor Award for Design Excellence
American Institute of Architects, New England: Honor Award for Design Excellence
MIT’s Cogeneration Plant produces most of the power, heat, and chilled water for the campus, and has been designed to celebrate rather than disguise this utilitarian function.
The plant fills a vacant lot on a street lined with two- and three-story industrial and research buildings. Machinery is visible through three-story, horizontally gridded windows so that huge ducts appear as sculpture from the street. Between the windows, brick piers relate the building to its neighbors, particularly to the facade of the original power plant next door. Above the windows, a decorative metal cornice reconciles the differing cornice heights of the adjoining buildings. The result is industrial architecture that enlivens an otherwise dreary streetscape while honoring a tradition of architecturally significant power plants in the Boston area.