MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) needed more space, so the university chose the vacant Metropolitan Storage Warehouse—a brick fortress built in phases from 1894 to 1923—as its new hub. The original structure is five stories tall, with 2‑foot‑thick walls and 1,500 storage units, forming a 500‑foot‑long “five‑building” block.
The design strategy split this monolith into distinct “neighbourhoods.” DS+R placed a stack of double‑height, column‑free studios inside each segment, suspending them from roof trusses so the load is transferred back to the existing walls, achieving large, light‑filled volumes without new columns.
For a century the warehouse had only narrow slits for windows, so natural light was a major challenge. The architects carved large voids along the north façade—adjacent to the railroad tracks—and replaced sections of brick with glass curtain walls. This lets daylight flood the studios while offering views of the lively Cambridge streetscape. The intervention draws on Gordon Matta‑Clark’s “subtractive” approach: cutting away mass to reveal the building’s anatomy.
To ensure the cuts and window systems would work, MIT collaborated with DS+R, Leers Weinzapfel Associates, and Shawmut Design & Construction on on‑site slab‑cut tests. The exposed original cross‑sections are left visible, turning the building itself into a teaching tool for students to study structural details.
Because the Cambridge Historical Commission required the south and east façades to remain essentially untouched, most daylighting had to come from the north side. The team addressed south‑side lighting with an “intersect window” system—steel‑frame windows that intersect the existing small apertures, satisfying the commission’s minimal‑intervention demand while creating playful light patterns.
Inside, the layout is asymmetric: large studios dominate the north side, while smaller offices, seminar rooms, and research spaces occupy the south side. Each floor features its own “infinite corridor,” echoing MIT’s main Infinite Corridor, allowing continuous visual and physical connections between the big studios and the smaller rooms. A stripped‑down central stairwell pierces the corridors, serving as a ceremonial spine that encourages serendipitous encounters.
Beyond spatial upgrades, the project embodies MIT’s commitment to adaptive reuse. DS+R notes that demolishing a massive historic shell often costs more than inventing new uses for it, and that architecture students should experience reuse firsthand as a lesson in resource stewardship.
Funding came from the Morningside Foundation (a $100 million gift establishing the Morningside Academy for Design) and Sidara (providing the Sidara Auditorium and Gallery). The renovated Met Warehouse will host a moving‑in ceremony on September 8, signaling MIT’s blend of historic preservation with forward‑looking pedagogy.
Review: The Met Warehouse transformation illustrates how structural subtraction, strategic glazing, and layered circulation can revitalize a historic building for modern academic needs. By turning the fabric of the warehouse into a living laboratory, the project balances preservation, innovation, and sustainability, offering a replicable model for campus‑wide adaptive reuse.