Icon / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Now Over 150 Years Old, The United States’ First Architecture School, Mit School Of Architecture And Planning, Has Become One Of The World’s Top-rated Universities And A Prominent Commissioner Of Avant-garde Buildings.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was only four years old in 1865 when it offered its first architecture course – the first formal architectural curriculum in the United States and the first architecture programme in the world to operate within a university.
It was 1868 when the first courses were taught, which were based largely on the teachings of the École des Beaux-Arts. A graduate of the famed Paris school, Eugene Letang, was recruited to lead the programme’s design.
In 1932 the school – then known as the School of Architecture – was formally established, becoming the School of Architecture and Planning (SAP) 12 years later.
MIT SAP has long been considered a global academic leader and is regularly named as one of the world’s most prestigious schools – its Department of Architecture came top in the 2018 QS World University Rankings.
SAP played a key role in introducing modernism to the United States in the 20th century, and many progressive modernist and post-modernist buildings have been commissioned by MIT.
The very first buildings constructed at MIT’s Cambridge campus were built of reinforced concrete – the first time the material was used for a nonindustrial building.
The site is now home to many landmark buildings, including: the Baker House dormitory (1947) designed by Alvar Aalto; the MIT Chapel and Kresge Auditorium (both 1955) by Eero Saarinen; and the Green Building by Araldo Cossutta and I. M. Pei.
Elsewhere on campus, distinctive newer buildings from the first decade of the 21st century include Steven Holl’s Simmons Hall (2002), Frank Gehry’s Stata Center (2004) and Fumihiko Maki’s Media Lab Extension (2009) – examples of the often referenced, though not necessarily revered, ‘starchitecture’.