Diller Scofidio + Renfro has completed the conversion of MIT’s historic Metropolitan Warehouse into a new 195,000-square-foot home for the School of Architecture and Planning, replacing decades of scattered facilities spread across campus. Built in 1894 and expanded through 1923, the fortress-like red-brick warehouse sat largely unused despite sitting just steps from the school’s former base in Building 7. DS+R, working with associate architect Leers Weinzapfel Associates, preserved the building’s south-facing façade while enlarging its small windows almost invisibly, and replaced the brick along the north facade with five-story glass curtain walls. To create light-filled studios, the firm removed the centers of four of the five original structures, exposing raw cross-sections of brick and terra cotta rather than concealing them. MIT will mark the completion with “Occupancy,” an inaugural exhibition on movement, labor, and adaptation, alongside a procession on September 8, a dedication on October 1, and a public opening October 3 during MIT Future Fest.
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