The first time I visited the Stata center, I didn't even realise there was more than one side to it. The second time, I actually went around the back (or front depending on how you look at it) and couldn't help but be struck by how disjointed it all felt. It's strange how Gehry's EMP Museum [link] for all it's cacophony of different colours and materials feels much more cohesive than the Ray and Maria Stata Center for Computer, Information and Intelligence Sciences [link] at MIT. Whilst sporting a title as long as many of the now ousted Labour government front benchers (I'm looking at you Craig Emerson former Tertiary Minister for the department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Eduction [link].) the center doesn't feel whole, as if several different architecture students worked on the different parts in complete isolation from one another, burning the midnight oil before putting then tacked together on the night before the project was due for assessment the next day. It has sharp angles, it has curves, it has metal, glass and brick all the signatures but it feels like Ghery has left the building on this one.
The building was deigned by Frank Gehry [link] and completed in 2004.
