Re:That place is an eyesore (Score 2, Interesting)

I work next door to the Stata Center (so I have to look at it all day), and I think it's magnificent. As you correctly point out, every other building around is pretty plain. It's block after block of box-shaped buildings all over Kendall square. Glossy, professional looking, but rather architecturally uninteresting rectilinear buildings that all the big computing and biotech companies built when they closed all the grimy old brick machine shops that once ruled that end of Cambridge. The Stata center proudly sits in the middle of everything and refuses to be a box; it's supposed to look out of place. MIT has a history of picking unusual designs. I need only point to the Kresge auditorium or the nearby chapel, or even the Alumni Pool which has been incorporated into the Stata Center's new fitness center. There are many zoning restrictions about style in historical residential areas such as the Back Bay, but the area around Kendall square was, as I pointed out before, dominated by grimy single story brick factories. As a result, I doubt anyone in Cambridge city govenrment was interested in preserving the architectural style of the area. Not to mention, additional restrictions on architecture would be bound to discourage developers from wanting to go through the hassle of dealing with additional commitee meetings about proposed plans, and Cambidge was hoping to develop the area to bring in additional tax revenue.