MET Warehouse Dedication

Thank you, Mark. And good afternoon, everyone!

Last time I was here at the MET I was at the head of a parade! The joyful, noisy, fluttering procession that marked the official “occupancy” of this incredible space. 

Lots of you were part of it (and some of you had costumes that none of us will forget!) 

It was a perfect day to bring all the glorious creative spirit of this community out into the sunshine: pouring down the steps of 77 marching across Mass Ave and swinging around past the new Music Building. It was a cheerful symbolic journey – and I believe it reminded all of us just how far this community has come.

When I got to MIT, the MET project was well under way: You could only visit with a hard hat. When Hashim first walked me through it was all dust and rubble and scaffolding. But he was SO happy, and the vision he painted was SO vivid, that I had no doubt we were in for something spectacular.

And here we are: With SA+P and the Morningside Academy united in one inspiring physical space and with the MET now joining the Linde Music building, and W97 for theater arts, to create a magnetic new West Campus district for art and design.

A huge shout-out here to my predecessor: Rafael, the vision for this new district took shape on your watch. On behalf of the MIT community, thank you for your foresight your perseverance and your insistence that the music, theater and design communities at MIT deserve facilities worthy of the quality of their world-class work.

Over time, as the MET took shape, it was easy to see the ways it reflected the current intellectual priorities and deepest values and culture of MIT.

For instance, the MIT community is intently focused on the great civilizational challenge of climate change.

Buildings account for a tremendous piece of the carbon equation. Which means as I’ve learned from Hashim that the most sustainable building is often the one that already exists.

With his inspired leadership and the ingenuity of our architects preserving and transforming this century-old structure did two things at once: 

• It allowed us to avoid the enormous environmental costs of demolition and replacement. 
• And it created a wonderful new space for seeking climate solutions that is itself a lesson in sustainable reuse. 

The MET is also a testament to the transformative power of design, which has been central to MIT from the very beginning.

When I talk to our alumni, they all remember the old Metropolitan Warehouse. In fact, they often remember what they stored there! And they’re always amazed that anyone could possibly turn this giant “object repository” into a thriving community. 

But that’s the miraculous power of design: It’s having the courage and imagination to ask, “What if?” and “Why not?” the kind of big open questions that have more than one right answer. And it’s the willingness to engage and explore multiple points of view until the vision finally comes into focus and the answer feels as if it must have been obvious all along.

I want to point out one last aspect of the MET that reflects and reinforces the essence of MIT in a way that’s particularly timely.

In August, thanks to an outstanding faculty-led committee, MIT issued a new report on the role of AI in education. The committee observed that there are wonderful ways to use generative AI in teaching and learning, and we should. But it also concluded that the existence of these technologies in our community is currently making it much harder to assess student progress; upending foundational elements of the MIT educational experience, from the p-set to the study group; eroding the ‘social contract’ between instructors and students; and increasing social isolation.

In response, the report recommends that instructors across MIT rethink their approach to teaching and assessment. 

In an era when knowledge costs nothing education will come, in the committee’s words, from helping students to value the process of learning as a “productive struggle” and from engaging them in “human settings where they learn how to work with others, communicate their ideas, receive criticism constructively, build confidence, develop judgment, and act as members of a community.”

I have to say that sounds exactly like the kind of hands-on, in-person, collaborative problem-solving the new MET was made for.

In other words: This community is not only ready to withstand the educational challenges of AI it’s also primed to help the rest of MIT meet the moment. And that is very good news for us all!

In the first grand space as you come into the MET from Mass Ave, the left-hand wall has an enormous graphic. It represents all the hours of all the tradespeople whose hands literally touched this building. It’s beautiful, and very fitting.

So, I would ask you all to imagine an equally compelling chart that represents the waves of support this project received from many, many sources from the MIT Corporation the donors the City of Cambridge the architects and every member of our faculty and staff who had a hand in making the new MET the triumph we see today. 

To all of you, I offer one big “thank you!”

And let me end by singling out one person for special praise. 

From long before my first dusty encounter with the MET, Hashim Sarkis has been its greatest champion. His leadership and imagination shaped not only this building, but the ambitious future it makes possible for the School. 

Hashim has been involved at every step, from choosing the architects and shaping the program, to inspiring the donors and making sure the new café serves very, very good coffee.

So, it is my pleasure and privilege to introduce him to you now: the dean of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, Professor Hashim Sarkis.