Phi Beta Epsilon House at MIT

State of the art, sustainable upgrade for a 90 year old fraternity house that meets or surpasses the standards of new housing evolving on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus. Key components of the project strengthen communal learning, improve and enhance the presence of the house on campus and Memorial Drive, and make the whole house handicap accessible. The required addition of an elevator presented an opportunity for a dramatic new tower, with glass enclosed common study/social rooms at each landing that look back to the athletic fields and new campus buildings. To encourage social enrichment and communal living, students encounter collaboration areas within the circulation paths on each of the upper floors, which are flexibly connected to an adjoining six person "study suite". The collaboration area and the study suite are ideal settings for larger, organized meetings or impromptu small social gatherings. New connections and enriched multi-media technologies among common spaces on the first floor and a new dining terrace with views of the Charles River generate a cluster of flexible and active social spaces. Newly defined spaces at the exterior edges of the building, filled with activity, maximize the value of the site by providing brothers with visual and physical connections with both the flow of campus activity and the city that reinforce their engagement with the broader community.

Building systems repairs and replacements afforded the opportunity to integrate sustainable technologies such as energy star appliances and equipment, a geothermal heat pump, thermal windows, solar photo voltaic panels on the roof deck trellis, native species landscaping and permeable paving and parking spaces for Zipcar shared car service.