Problems
When the Green Building was first opened, the isolated prominence of the building and its relative proximity to the Charles River basin increased wind speeds in the high open archway at its base, preventing people from entering or leaving the building through the hinged main doors on windy days, necessitating the use of a tunnel connecting to the other buildings. Large wood panels were temporarily erected in the open concourse to block the wind, and revolving doors were later installed at the ground floor entries to ameliorate this problem somewhat. Several windows cracked, and at least one large pane popped out on upper stories at least in part due to the effects of wind, eventually requiring all the windows to be replaced. A few years later, a similar-appearing problem was repeated in Boston's John Hancock Tower located in Back Bay across the river, a 60-story skyscraper which happened to be designed by the same architectural firm.
It is incorrectly rumored that Alexander Calder's monumental sculpture The Big Sail, was situated in front of the building to deflect the high winds. The sculpture is located too far from the building entryway to have much effect on wind velocities there.
Read more about this topic: Green Building (MIT)
Famous quotes containing the word problems:
“The question of place and climate is most closely related to the question of nutrition. Nobody is free to live everywhere; and whoever has to solve great problems that challenge all his strength actually has a very restricted choice in this matter. The influence of climate on our metabolism, its retardation, its acceleration, goes so far that a mistaken choice of place and climate can not only estrange a man from his task but can actually keep it from him: he never gets to see it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“If we fail to meet our problems here, no one else in the world will do so. If we fail, the heart goes out of progressives throughout the world.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
“I believe that if we are to survive as a planet, we must teach this next generation to handle their own conflicts assertively and nonviolently. If in their early years our children learn to listen to all sides of the story, use their heads and then their mouths, and come up with a plan and share, then, when they become our leaders, and some of them will, they will have the tools to handle global problems and conflict.”
—Barbara Coloroso (20th century)