Today I had the privilege (along with my good friend Erdin Beshimov) of getting a sneak peek tour of E62, the new MIT Sloan Building opening in a few days.
Here are my thoughts:
The building is beautiful. Really something I am proud of. The walls and stairs are made of German limestone that is thousands of years old. You can literally see fossils in the panels. The rest is very open and airy, with super modern, clean lines of glass and metal. What a great gift from Professor Ed Roberts and E*Trade founder Bill Porter, as well as others.
The building is collaborative. This building is just what our great school needed to continue to improve. Professors and students have incredible and much needed shared space to collaborate and share ideas. There are 35 group study rooms for students, which is a huge improvement from the handful we have now. This will keep students on campus to do group work, increasing collaboration and friendship. Professors have a shared lounge and numerous meeting areas for the first time. A 200 person cafeteria sits overlooking Boston and the Charles River. The new cafeteria will serve lunch and dinner, and snacks in between. This is an amazing improvement to the current set-up.
The building is green. Living roof, natural light, automatic sensing everywhere, and an aggregate of recycled beer bottles for a floor.
Finally, like all buildings here on campus it is completely unique. It is easily the most elegant building at MIT. I feel lucky to get to spend a year in the new building and look forward to coming back there in years to come. For the class of 2012 and beyond, you have an amazing building to complement the strong curriculum here at Sloan.
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