“Greenest” building in MIT history ready to welcome new MBAs

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The newest, largest, and greenest building ever constructed at the MIT Sloan School of Management is now open to receive this year’s class of about 400 MBA students from the United States and 50 nations across the globe. Overlooking the Charles River, the 215,000 square foot, $142 million building, which includes more than 200 offices, classrooms, and space for group study and other activities, will enable all MIT Sloan faculty members to be based in one building for the first time in decades.

“robust entrepreneurial environment for both sustainable business and sustainable development. Very few universities other than MIT are integrating business with social concerns in a real way”

The structure, bearing the typically MIT name of E62, “will by design further enhance the collaboration among students and faculty that is a hallmark of MIT Sloan,” said MIT Sloan Dean David C. Schmittlein. “Further, E62’s use of sustainable technology in both construction and operation is consistent with MIT Sloan’s emphasis on sustainability as good policy and good business.”

E62 is now the “greenest” building on the entire MIT campus. More than 90 percent of the debris from a structure torn down to make way for it was diverted away from landfills. Major elements of the garden that had been in front of the demolished building, including trees weighing up to 17 tons, were relocated to a new park-like area on campus. Among its many sustainable features the building has active chilled beams for cooling, automatic window shades in offices, a green roof, and an irrigation system connected to a central weather station for minimization of watering. E62 will be formally dedicated in May as part of MIT's 150th anniversary celebration in 2011.

One new MBA will have the rare opportunity to study in the building she helped design. “As a young designer, I was very fortunate to be a full-time member of the architectural team working on E62,” said Heather Hunt, who grew up in Hong Kong and worked for MRY Architects & Planners in Los Angeles. “Very few designers get the opportunity to be the end-user of a project to which they have made a significant contribution. I feel pretty excited about the prospect of walking through the new building for the first time as a student.”

Travis Trammell, a Louisiana native and U.S. Army captain who has been deployed to Iraq twice, checked out E62 while visiting Cambridge with his family this summer. “The new building looks great and represents MIT Sloan very well,” said Trammell, who is seeking to expand his professional skills. “Based on its reputation for excellence in operations, a Sloan MBA is particularly attractive,” said Trammell, 29. “I will apply what I learn while instructing cadets at West Point and throughout my career in the Army and during my post-military career endeavors.”

Robin Bose, 29, who grew up in Cherry Hill, N.J, as the child of first-generation Indian immigrants, was attracted to MIT Sloan’s “robust entrepreneurial environment for both sustainable business and sustainable development. Very few universities other than MIT are integrating business with social concerns in a real way,” said Bose, who is interested in a career in sustainable business. “My feeling is that it’s harder to argue against a good idea if it has a reasonable rate of return.”

Some students, such as George Simpson, are already enrolled in classes. Simpson, 26, who grew up in the small town of Sturgis, KY, is in MIT Sloan’s Master of Finance (M.Fin.) program, which he called “strikingly perfect for my interests. It provides a balanced view of finance within an institution with a great reputation, and has a one-year time frame.” Like other students, he expects his MIT Sloan work to help offset tough economic challenges. “If someone comes to the program with a great attitude, hard work and genuine interest in the financial markets, it will help produce both great research and a great job offer.”

Andrea Ippolito, 26, who was raised in Burlington, MA, hopes to build upon skills she developed while working at Boston Scientific Corp. “I loved being in the lab fulltime to innovate and perform experiments to better understand our medical devices, but I knew my interests were gradually moving outside of the research environment,” she said. “I realized I needed to gain a better understanding on how to architect a system that can best capture knowledge and motivate scientists and engineers to collaborate across company borders.” Ippolito has enrolled in MIT Sloan’s System Design and Management (SDM) program so that “I can learn from the best thinkers in this field.”

Limor Zehavi, 27 and from Haifa, is also looking to build upon her professional background, which includes serving in the Israeli Defense Force as a tank Instructor, followed by a position at ELAL airlines. “I decided to follow an MBA to close the gap between practical and engineering theory and real-world practices, as well as to learn to apply to global business to the skills I’ve acquired at ELAL,” said Zehavi, who is enrolled MIT Sloan’s Leaders for Global Operations Program. “LGO is a program where I can combine my technical skills and my interpersonal skills and learn to take them to the next level. MIT is a school of great minds and innovations that influence the entire world.”