an attempt to uncover the truth about September 11th 2001

M.I.T., Rotch Visual Collections

PREFACE

Sixty State Street is a project of unique characteristics. Its lengthy development has spanned from the expansionist middle sixties, when "bigger is better" office towers symbolized civic strength, growth, pride, and power, to the more conservative middle seventies, when envirornental concern and a different understanding of the city and its problems forced one to question whether tall buildings should indeed be built. Its history makes it uniquely instructive. It has experienced not only most obstacles to development, and followed the major paths of building regulation, but served to epitomize urban design philosophies of both the sixties and seventies. In addition, its design history and the openness of the designers to the Design Case Study Group has made Sixty State Street a textbook example for the design and construction of buildings.

The Design Case Study Group (DCSG) is a part of the Constructed Facilities Division of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Department of Civil Engineering. The DCSG includes faculty and students from MIT's Departments of Civil Engineering, Architecture, and Urban Planning. The objectives of the DCSG are twofold: first, to research the processes by which buildings are designed and constructed; and second, to provide educational experiences and resource materials for the teaching of the building process. The philosophy of the DCSG requires the examination of the building process from varied perspectives such that the integration of these perspectives provides a comprehensive understanding of both the building and the process through which it evolved. The spectrum of materials generated by the DCSG includes reports, videotapes, slides and a large aggregation of source documents.

The Design Case Study Group could not have carried on its research without the beneficial and continued aid of the members of the Development Team. The Group would like to thank CCF Project Manager Ray Miller and the members of Cabot, Cabot and Forbes; Project Manager Joe Day, Site Superintendent Al Jefferson, and the members of Aberthaw Construction; Project Manager Neil Anderson, Robert Siegle, his studio and the members of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-Chicago; Israel Naman and the members of I. A. Naman & Associates;

Project Partner Edmund Johnson and the members of Haley and Aldrich, Inc.; and John Hamilton and the members of Hale and Dorr. In addition, The Design Case Study Group wishes to acknowledge the cooperation of The Boston Redevelopment Authority in the person of Richard Joslyn, The Office of the Mayor of the City of Boston, and the Boston Building Department. This work would not have been possible without the support of the Leventhal Faculty Fellowship, The Lilly Teaching Fellowship, The College Work Study Program, and The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.

Members of the DCSG who have worked on the Sixty State Street Case Study are Jim Becker, Mitch Green, Rob Shults, Jim Paulson, Paul Fallon, Joan Hughson, Karen Ouzts, Ray Levitt, Jim Champy, Bill Hadge, Ed Tse, and Liz Whitbeck.

The publication of this report was made possible by the constant efforts of our support staff to make all the details come together. We would like to thank typists J. Malinofsky and Denali Delmar as well as coordinator [name withdrawn by request] . The photographs were taken by Jim Becker and Mitch Green; and processed for the report by Ellen Katz and Jay Werb. A final word of thanks to Elizabeth Whitbeck for the excellent graphics work contained in this report.

For the Design Case Study Group
James M. Becker
Cambridge, Massachusetts
January 17, 1977

Home Page