195 Albany Street (MIT NW23), constructed in 1924 warehouse building designed by the firm Monks & Johnson,is part of a 5 building warehouse district in Cambridge along the old Boston & Albany railroad lines.

 

It has been completely renovated and adapted for new office quarters for MIT Departments of Facilities and Campus Planning. The 3-story, 50,000 square foot facility, substantially altered in the past for research laboratory facilities, was gutted to its surviving masonry enclosure and heavy timber frame. The structure’s essential industrial character and open plan, high-ceiling spaces were recognized and recaptured in the new office layout and design. The development program, a mix of open office space, senior management private offices, formal and informal conferencing spaces and contemporary office support functions, was structured to reflect the building’s original character. New building systems, lighting, energy conservation strategies and finishes were conceived and executed to retain this industrial character and express a common industrial aesthetic in contemporary means, equipment and features.