Simmons Hall

Massachusetts Institute of Techonology

Design Architect:  Steven Holl Architects

Architect of Record: Perry Dean Rogers Partners Architect

Location: Cambridge, MA

Total GSF: 162,000 GSF

Completed: 2003

Awards:

2004 Harleston Parker Medal

2003 AIA Honor Award

Simmons Hall, an award-winning association with Steven Holl Architects, provides housing for 300 students as well as House Masters, Resident Advisors and Visiting Scholars. Additional program includes a dining room and food service program, raked theater, group studies, computer clusters, exercise rooms, student kitchens, and laundry facilities. Organically-shaped, interconnected multi-story atriums are a major design element, giving specific and dramatic character to the façade and organizing the building vertically to encourage student interaction.

Daylight and views are key design elements for Simmons Hall. Each student room has a grid of nine windows whose depth and size are designed to allow as much natural daylight and winter solar gain as possible. Prefabricated concrete elements frame the windows and give the façade a distinctive and repetitive grid-like appearance.