Ray and Maria Stata Center

Hard to believe that the Ray and Maria Stata Center celebrates its seventh anniversary on MIT's campus this March, 2011. Designed by world renowned architect Frank Gehry, this striking building-with its tilting towers, many-angled walls and radical shapes-changed the face of MIT and transformed Tech Square. Today it is the headquarters for the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, and the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Other than housing classrooms and faculty offices, the Stata Center boasts a cafe, a pub, a fitness center, and an amphitheater. Stata is named for the co-founder of semiconductor maker Analog Devices, Raymond S. Stata '57 and his wife, Maria. In this video, see the early models and floor plans of this landmark building as well as its first visitors.

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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has filed a negligence suit against world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, charging that flaws in his design of the $300 million Stata Center in Cambridge, one of the most celebrated works of architecture unveiled in years, caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, and drainage to back up.
The suit says that MIT paid Los Angeles-based Gehry Partners $15 million to design the Stata Center, which was hailed by critics as innovative and eye-catching with its unconventional walls and radical angles. But soon after its completion in spring 2004, the center's outdoor amphitheater began to crack due to drainage problems, the suit says. Snow and ice cascaded dangerously from window boxes and other projecting roof areas, blocking emergency exits and damaging other parts of the building, according to the suit. Mold grew on the center's brick exterior, the suit says, and there were persistent leaks throughout the building.
The suit says it cost MIT more than $1.5 million to hire another company to rebuild the amphitheater, with new bricks, seats, and a new drainage system.

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Ugly thing anyway

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And hailed by sane people as a pile of junk!

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The classic triumph of ego over good taste!