32 Vassar Street, Cambridge

The Stata Center, designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, opened in 2004 as the home for MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory as well as the school’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department and several other labs and departments. It’s designed around a wide first-floor “Student Street” featuring art, chalkboards, eating places, and displays honoring famous student hacks from MIT’s past. The space includes exhibits celebrating Building 20, a large structure built on this same site during World War II that was intended to be temporary but was actually occupied for nearly six decades. The shabby but infinitely flexible building housed the Radiation Laboratory, the secret lab that developed radar systems for the war; later it became a warren of small labs, programs, and organizations such as the Tech Model Railroad Club, which counted many early computer innovators among its members.

Go in and explore the first floor, grab a snack at the café, or sit down in the Stata Center as you listen to this segment. There are also restrooms inside.

Guest speaker

Debbie Douglas, Curator of Science and Technology, MIT Museum