
The urban renewal and increased pedestrianization of the area around the MBTA Kendall/MIT subway stop, a district formerly surrounded by parking lots and disused industrial sites, necessitated a new vision for the plaza that connects Main Street with the MIT campus. With three access points to the underground rail system and a long and narrow pedestrian thoroughfare, the site required a solution that would support a sheltering canopy while facilitating a smooth flow of peak-hour foot traffic. With assistance from the maritime and aviation industries, NADAAA solved this problem with a diamond-shaped canopy fixed atop a set of slender, eight-metre-tall steel columns. The spectacle of craning the canopy into place (it was fabricated in a shipyard in two pieces) underscored the ambition and ingenuity of this project.
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Team: Nader Tehrani with Katherine Faulkner, Harry Lowd and Tom Beresford (NADAAA); Robert Brown, Sandy Smith and Ramsey Bakhoum (Perkins & Will); McNamara Salvia (SGH); Eric Gunther (SoSo Limited); Lyman-Morse; and Turner Construction Company
The Kendall/MIT Gateway represents a new vision for a a district formerly surrounded by parking lots and disused industrial sites.