Art & Other Treasures at MIT

I arrived at MIT a little early for ROFLCOn, so I took a walk around the campus to visit some favorite spots.  MIT has some great sculpture erected as the result of a policy that sets aside money from each new building to incorporate art.  The best know is Alexander Calder's Great Sail in front of the Green Building.  It was controversial when it was installed in 1966, but was considered a classic by the time a similar controversy erupted around Louise Nevelson's Transparent Horizon a decade later.  For the first few years, it was "polychromed" several times, but now it is back to its intended black and is an accepted part of the campus.

One delightful surprise was Sol LeWitt's, Bars of Color Within Squares, which is in the floor surrounding the new Center for Theoretical Physics - a building within a building in a space that was formerly the Atomic Courtyard. 

I also visited some places on the Tunnel Tour.  Unfortunately the Tomb of the Unknown Tool is now blocked off to casual visitors and the Tomb II is in disrepair, but the tunnel system itself has been greatly extended.  One can walk indoors from 77 Mass Ave almost all the way to the Kendall Square T stop.

The complete photo album is here.