The Ray and Maria Stata Center is an academic building on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was built by the Pritzker-Prize winning architect Frank Gehry. The building was opened in 2004. At first, Gehry’s work was praised by critics saying the the curved walls, varying material of the exterior, and daring wall angles represented the freedom, daring, and creativity of the research that’s supposed to occur inside it. Gehry was known for pushing the limit, literally defying gravity, and complicated structures. Later on many issues arose with the Stata Center. MIT sued Gehry and the construction companies for “providing deficient design services and drawings.” Those issues led to mold, leaky springs, drainage backup and masonry cracks. Frank Gehry tried to explain that with complicated structures and the use of value engineering (cutting out items to lower the building cost) comes trade-offs. Essentially, Gehry believed that MIT was after his insurance.

My thoughts on the building are mediocre. I think it is very strange to have such a unique structure on a college campus, especially MIT. However, I do find the structure’s uniqueness very impressive. For it to go up so many stories then split into separate towers is pretty neat. I think if the building was elsewhere or next to some of his other works, I would appreciate it more and so would others.