The Landscape Architect’s Guide to

North Court and Main Street

Your Guide

Laura Tenny, ASLA

Designed by Reed Hilderbrand Associates and completed in 2011, MIT’s North Court is a recent addition to the campus landscape and, at four acres, is one of its larger courtyards.

Built in connection with The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research (Building 76), North Court transformed what had been surface parking adjacent to the Stata Center (Building 32) into a new campus quadrangle that serves as a highly-used event space, plaza, network of paths, sunny lawn, and picnic bosque.

The North Court project also created new pedestrian plazas along Main and Ames Streets, enhancing the urban campus edge with benches and shade trees.

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Restrained Exuberance

A restrained palette of materials creates interest but not clutter, with elements such as light-colored bands of pavers, asphalt walks, tall modern light standards, wood and metal benches and tables, and geometric panels of flat lawn. Mark di Suvero’s big painted steel sculpture, Aesop’s Fables II (2005) is an example of the terrific MIT public art collection you can visit around campus. With its powerful scale, the sculpture holds its own against the eclectic styles of the surrounding buildings.

Image: Laura Tenny North 2

Trees Define the Edges

Alleés of oaks, elms, and London plane trees line the courtyard. Here, a double row of London plane trees define the eastern edge of the court and echo a row of mature London plane trees in nearby McDermott Court.

Image: Laura Tenny North 3

Arranged for Conversation

Conversational groupings of benches and side tables create places to rest or chat with friends.

Image: Laura Tenny North 4

The Lunch Spot

A long row of picnic tables shaded by a double row of elms trees is a popular lunch spot.

Image: Laura Tenny North 5

Softening the Edges

Large shrub beds planted with masses of spirea, yews, or witch hazel soften the edges of the courtyard at building or street. Here, spirea blooms under oaks near the Vassar Street entrance.

Image: Laura Tenny North 6

Winter Interest

The same area in winter -- muted colors of shrubs, grasses, and tracery of oak trees.

Image: Laura Tenny North 7

Streetscape

Along the Main Street edge of Building 76, the landscape changes from green courtyard to paved urban streetscape. Trees and benches transform this block of Main Street into a pedestrian’s oasis. Structural soil plant beds underneath the sidewalk pavers provide a visibly healthier tree canopy than on other blocks of Main Street with traditional tree pits. Plantings of ginkgos and oaks change to bands of yellow and orange in the fall.

Image: Laura Tenny North 8

A Pause on a Walk

No longer grouped in conversation, lines of cast stone benches provide places to pause in the shade or sun. Linear patterns of ginkgo trees, pavers, benches, and other site elements reinforce the linearity of Main Street.

Image: Laura Tenny North 9

Pattern Mash-Up

Paving patterns collide in organized chaos at a Main Street curb cut.

Image: Laura Tenny North 10

Corner Plaza

At the corner of Ames and Main Streets is another small plaza with seating shaded under a canopy of thornless honeylocust trees.

Image: Laura Tenny