MIT L. Reif Innovation Corridor

A New Campus Spine

Among a maze of underground utilities, parking, and service corridors, we uncovered an inviting, accessible, friendly campus passage that prioritizes pedestrian comfort, enhances safety, and shapes a coherent sense of place. A new universally-accessible paved surface flows from building to building, striking an urbane character at the heart of a hard working campus. Where in the past students kept to the interior infinite hallways to traverse the campus, now students have adopted the Outfinite as a favorite place to move through and to gather between classes. The design and material decisions made here set a standard that will be rolled out along a new pedestrian corridor running the length of the campus.

High Performance Systems

Managing stormwater with green infrastructure is a key institutional goal. We harness the capacity of site systems such as a more than 75 new trees, naturalizing shrubs and groundcovers, and engineered soils (in planting beds and below pavement) to provide multiple benefits including: decreased runoff and enhanced water quality; reduced flooding; water conservation; carbon sequestration; and mitigation of heat island effect through shading and passive cooling.

Green Over Grey

Using planting and soils systems designed with significant stormwater treatment and detention capacity, the project reduces the impact of large rainfall events on existing drainage infrastructure and helps protect below-grade assets in the buildings surrounding North Corridor. Trench drains along the length of the Corridor collect and distribute water through subsurface pipes to landscape filters – planting beds criss-crossed by site utilities and designed to store and cleanse water through sandy soils. If the capacity of the trench drains and/or distribution pipes is exceeded in a storm, site grading directs surface runoff towards the landscape filters, reducing the potential for ponding in paved access areas.