Renewing Two Saarinen Icons

Kresge Auditorium and the MIT Chapel, designed by Eero Saarinen and built in 1955, are both world renowned works of architecture and powerful symbols of MIT’s commitment in the post-war era to the creation of a humanistic campus community to complement and enhance their status as one of the world’s great technical universities. Conceived as simple, powerful and expressive geometric forms, Kresge and the Chapel each feature an unusual, custom-designed curtainwall (Kresge) and window wall (Chapel) that are character-defining features of these iconic works of mid-century modernist architecture.

In planning a comprehensive renewal of the two landmark buildings, MIT sought to preserve and maintain the iconic Saarinen designs, while also addressing deterioration, fundamental shortcomings, and improving performance. While the comprehensive renewal project included many interior and exterior materials and systems, this paper focuses on the curtainwall and window wall. The success of the project was due in large part to the highly collaborative, integrated design assist process with MIT, the general contractor, four curtainwall/ glazing/stained glass subcontractors, architect, structural, envelope and MEP FP engineers all collaborating from early mock-ups, prototypes, and testing, through final design, shop drawings, construction, and punchlisting.

Both designs retained key components of the original fabric, such as the steel support structure at Kresge and the original German art glass at Chapel, while replacing worn and deteriorated aluminum or steel components sections with laser welded stainless steel. On Kresge, our design optimized both performance and historic appearance by replacing annealed monolithic glazing with high-performing laminated glass with a low e coating, while on the Chapel our design laminated the German art glass to improve its resistance to breakage (a recurrent problem), and also improve life safety. Overall, our collaborative design and construction process developed an optimal solution through sympathetic, technical improvements to solve original problems, as well as evolutionary upgrades that balanced the demands of historic preservation and high-performance design.