Paint the Floor Red

Today, Kate reports on a local space where function and beauty intersect:

“We live our lives in spaces, most of them interior: offices, houses, schools, stores. The buildings in which we spend our days - some beautiful, many bland - each serve a purpose, keeping us warm and dry, allowing us to collaborate with our colleagues, sleep safely at night, shop, eat, reflect, communicate. Most buildings today are preoccupied with function, but every once in a while one finds a building in which some combination of architect, sponsor, and magic come together to create a space that is about nothing so much as whimsy, beauty, and the joy of being alive.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is home to one such new building, one that is worth experiencing both for children and adults: The Green Center for Physics (Building 6C, in the quirky parlance of MIT), located at the southern end of the campus' famous Infinite Corridor. The Green Center features a breathtaking floor mosaic, designed by the late Sol LeWitt and titled 'Bars of Colors Within Squares,' that brings together geometric symmetry and a rainbow of colors in a way that is both charming and truly beautiful. Open to the public, never crowded, and extremely kid-friendly - imagine the world's largest hopscotch court - the Green Center is a small gem of a space that raises the bar not only for new campus architecture but for all of the spaces that we inhabit. Function and beauty can co-exist, and the Boston area is lucky to benefit from the talent of LeWitt and the forethought of MIT to have such a lovely new space for all ages to enjoy.”