MIT's Simmons Hall Is The Ugliest Dorm I've Ever Seen

And that is saying a lot.

This building, designed by typical modern artist #205,483,672, Steven Holl, currently graces the space right next to Briggs Athletics Field at MIT. It's called The Sponge, and in typical modern artist fashion, Holl got his inspiration for it while bathing in a tub. You can always expect deep inspirations from these people.

Here is a very good article explaining the design and building process of the dorm written by a faculty member involved in its oversight (or lack thereof). Not only does this article talk about how much of an apparently pretentious loser the architect is, but it also illuminates how universities are inept bureaucracies that make it impossible to actually create a good environment for their students.

For example, the ridiculous safety concerns that forced the dorm to be constructed even worse than it was originally planned. One of them was a fear that too many people would leap to their death if allowed onto terraces. MIT is worried about this for some reason. Maybe they have bigger problems. Instead, they'll just treat their students like children who cannot be trusted to heights.

Then there's also the deadlines and money factors that forced the acceptance of a stupid design on the oversight committee. Maybe they shouldn't have locked themselves into working with a crybaby modern artist who has been given way to much power in life.

Although the architect cannot be blamed for the design damages caused by irrational university squabbling, the article mentions how little was done by Steven Holl's team to address any concerns in any meaningful way, and that his artistic vision was the important thing in the matter.

What artistic vision is that? This joke of a building? It doesn't even look like a sponge. It looks like a one of those massive soviet-era construction projects abandoned midway through. It's cubist, cold, and sterile. Steven Holl has no artistic vision, just a rekindling of that same old boring modern art dogma.

From other things I've read, the dorm today is complete with unmovable and impractical furniture designed and selected by Holl. Students have complained about the rooms being cold, their floors feeling isolated, and other such consequences of modern art in practice.

The thing about architecture is that it shows you inescapably the realities of bad design. When someone sees a stupid painting it seems harmless enough, but take that same artist and put them in charge of designing a building, and you'll have a real problem on your hands.