Technology Square (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

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Coordinates: 42°21′49″N 71°05′33″W / 42.3635°N 71.0926°W / 42.3635; -71.0926
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100, 300, and 500 Technology Square, as seen from Main Street in Cambridge

Technology Square, nicknamed Tech Square, is a commercial office building complex in the Port neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts, immediately adjacent to the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which is one of the most prestigious colleges in the world.

History

Draper Lab
visible (at right edge of picture)

Tech Square was jointly developed by

Brutalist
(especially the central building), with a large open plaza paved with concrete and featuring wide shallow stepped levels.

The first building (545) opened in 1963, the second (575) in 1964. Two more buildings were erected in 1966 and 1967,[1] forming a U facing Main Street made up of three nine-story buildings, and a three-story building in the middle.

In the 1970s, Draper Laboratory was built north of the original buildings, in the lot between them and Broadway, and was numbered 555.

Perkins & Will.[5]

The original complex had no street-level storefronts, though it did house a small branch bank. The newer buildings add multiple storefronts with restaurants and retail properties aligned along the edge of the public sidewalk, rather than set back from the property lines as in its original conception.

MIT sold its interest in Tech Square in 1973–74 to CCF. CCF later went into bankruptcy, and the complex was successively owned by

Prudential Life Insurance Company, and Beacon Capital Partners, until it was repurchased by MIT in 2001.[1] Alexandria Real Estate Equities bought the complex for $600 million in 2006,[6]
and it is now officially called Alexandria Technology Square on some documentation, although the original name is still used almost exclusively.

Occupants

MIT's

MIT Stata Center on the main campus.[7] The vacated building was completely overhauled and redesignated as 200 Technology Square.[7]

Many other companies and organizations have had offices in Tech Square, including

Akamai
.

The Central Intelligence Agency had a small office in Tech Square. MIT hackers placed a sign nearby, featuring the word "Intelligence". Below were the words "Central" and "Artificial", with arrows pointing in opposite directions.[7]

Hackers tapped into the elevator controls to allow their computers to summon the elevator directly to the ninth floor.[7]

Among the technologies developed at Technology Square are the

Lisp Machine, the Curl web programming language, and the Akamai content delivery network
.

Notes

  1. ^ a b O. Robert Simha, MIT Campus Planning, 1960–2000: An Annotated Chronology, p. 78ff
  2. ^ Benjamin S. Berman, "Polaroid Headquarters in Technology Square, 1966-1998", photograph taken in 1965
  3. ^ Ralph R. Swick, "Demolition of 549 Technology Square"
  4. ^ Alexandria Technology Square, under "Campus"
  5. ^ "500 Technology Square, Cambridge". Emporis. Emporis GmbH. Retrieved 2020-03-18.[dead link]
  6. ^ Rebecca Spalding, "How a Rundown Square Near Boston Birthed a Biotech Boom and Real Estate Empire", Bloomberg October 5, 2018 [1]
  7. ^ a b c d e f "MIT leaves behind a rich history in Tech Square". MIT News. March 17, 2004. Retrieved 2020-03-18.
  8. ^ "Richard Wareham, led design of Polaroid SX-70 camera; at 78" (obituary), Boston Globe, Thursday, August 19, 1999, p. B7

Bibliography

External links

42°21′49″N 71°05′33″W / 42.3635°N 71.0926°W / 42.3635; -71.0926

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