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Jun 21, 2010 · With MIT’s vision in mind along with Holl’s artistic architectural ideas, the ten-story undergraduate dormitory became a small city in itself with balancing opposing architectural elements,...
As the design progressed over the span of several months, the atria became smaller and smaller and more enclosed. Instead of serving as the main nodal points of the building, they became small, cavernous offshoots that we knew would not attract or encourage social interaction.
It is a vertical slice of city, 10 stories tall and 382′ long, providing a 125 seat theater, a night café, and street level dining. The “sponge” concept transforms the building via a series of programmatic and bio-technical functions.
Site preparation work didn't start until October of 2000. This forced the MIT administration to push back the target opening date for Simmons Hall from August 2001 to August 2002, and the freshmen-on-campus decision was delayed along with it.
It was also widely assumed across MIT that Simmons Hall would be an all-freshman dorm, a notion we needed to combat at every opportunity. Some students even wanted it that way-- they thought that Simmons Hall would work best as a holding area for freshmen who intended to move into FSILGs.
Nov 5, 2002 · Although it makes for interior movement that is as potentially dizzying as the experience of viewing Simmons out of doors, this Powers of Ten approach is indeed a systematic approach to city-building. Appropriately, Holl’s firm’s official language dubs Simmons Hall a “vertical slice of a city.”
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Simmons Hall at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was designed by Steven Holl Architects. The undergraduate residence was envisioned with the concept of "porosity." It is a vertical slice of city--ten stories tall and 382 feet long, providing a 125 seat theater, a night café, and street level dining.
