Thomas Aites
Consultant
MIT’s Kendall Square campus is significantly expanding in the next few years. One large development, Site 4 (Buildings E37 and E38), opened to much acclaim after five years of design and construction.
Acentech provided acoustics and audiovisual system design consulting to Perkins&Will (architect of record) and NADAAA (design architect) for E37, the new 29-story, 454-unit graduate student residential tower and E38, the renovated historic warehouses. The new Welcome Center in E38 opens up to a 200-seat auditorium with moveable walls, and includes an art gallery and ground-floor retail space, with admissions and sustainability groups’ offices on the second floor. The floors above house the new Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub, providing maker spaces and multi-function areas. A new lower-level childcare center (with adjacent landscaped courtyard) is now open to the entire MIT community. The apartment-style graduate housing at E37 is modern and quiet, with many shared amenity spaces for the residents, including a fitness area and music practice room.
Our AV designers provided design and specification of state-of-the-art systems for the Welcome Center auditorium, building lobbies, meeting rooms, family lounges and Innovation Hub spaces.
Acentech’s acousticians were involved during the master planning phase for the South of Main (SoMA) area, which included studying the environmental sound impacts to the surrounding community with the addition of the SoMA buildings. We suggested community noise control mitigation measures, as well as recommendations for interior acoustical designs, such as wall constructions, floor/ceiling constructions and building finishes, ensuring proper sound isolation and acoustics throughout the development. We focused our efforts on the flexible 9,000 sf auditorium, the admissions offices, the Innovation Hub, the apartment configurations, and amenity spaces for the residents. Collaborating with the architects, we assisted in the selection and configurations of the acoustical baffles that are throughout the building.
MIT has made a major commitment to sustainable growth, community, inclusion and collaborative research with its Kendall Square master plan. Site 4 is a shining start to MIT’s long-term vision.
