“To understand how design can solve critical problems, we needed a place where we can incubate innovations for the built environment. The Metropolitan Storage Warehouse is on track to become a hub for design at MIT and in the world.”

Hashim Sarkis
Dean, School of Architecture and Planning

The Metropolitan Storage Warehouse (Met Warehouse) on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Vassar Street has long been a familiar presence to the MIT and Cambridge communities. Now, an innovative renovation project, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is converting this iconic building into a modern hub for interdisciplinary design research and education; and a new home for the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, uniting many elements of the school in a single place; and a home for the MIT Morningside Academy for Design.

The adaptive reuse of the Met Warehouse will create 217,000 gross square feet of space for academic, research, and gathering purposes, including undergraduate and graduate labs and studios. The Met Warehouse will be the new home for the Department of Architecture, along with research units and studios from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the Center for Real Estate, and the Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism.

The Met Warehouse has long been a familiar presence to the MIT and Cambridge communities.

An innovative renovation project is converting the Met Warehouse into a modern hub for interdisciplinary design research and education and a new home for the MIT School of Architecture and Planning.

In the renovated Met Warehouse, old and new elements of the iconic structure form a symbiotic relationship.
Image: Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

The modern, light-filled lobby will welcome visitors and set the tone for the building.
Image: Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

The spacious auditorium connected to the main lobby will be available to the MIT community for convening and programming.
Image: Diller Scofidio + Renfro

The Building 3 mixer space features a double-height design space surrounded by classrooms and meeting rooms.
Image: Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

Open-floor design studios are contemporary and brightly lit.
Image: Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

New window openings will add natural light and a view to Vassar Street.
Image: Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

The MIT Morningside Academy for Design will have studios, collaborative classrooms, and exhibition areas in the new Met Warehouse.
Image: Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

As our faculty and students demonstrate time and again, design is the bridge between invention and innovation, sparking bold approaches and solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, from climate change to transportation to public health. The renovation will usher in a new era for design, architecture, urban planning, and entrepreneurship at MIT while adapting a remarkable historic structure for contemporary use.