Campus of The Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Campus Organization

Campus Organization

The geographical organization of the MIT campus is much easier to understand by referring to the MIT map, in online interactive, or downloadable printable form. There is also an MIT Accessibility Campus Map available for download, which is useful for mobility-impaired visitors, or anyone wheeling a heavy load.

Buildings 1–10 (excepting 9) were the original main campus, with Building 10, the location of the Great Dome, designed to be the ceremonial main entrance. The actual street entrance leads from 77 Massachusetts Avenue into the lobby of Building 7, at the western end of the "Infinite Corridor", which forms the east-west axis of the main group of buildings. Buildings 1–8 are arranged symmetrically around Building 10, with odd-numbered buildings to the west and even-numbered buildings to the east. In general, higher numbers are assigned to buildings as distance from the center of campus increases.

The east side of main campus has "the 6s", several connecting buildings that end with the digit 6 (buildings 6, 16, 26, 36, 56 and 66, with building 46 across the street from 36). The "30s" series buildings run along Vassar Street on the north side of main campus. Buildings that are East of Ames Street are prefixed with an E (e.g. E52, the Sloan Building); those West of Massachusetts Avenue generally start with a W (e.g., W20, the Stratton Student Center).

Buildings North of the railroad tracks paralleling Vassar Street are prefixed with N, while those northerly structures that are also West of Massachusetts Avenue are designated with NW. A single building at the far West end of campus is designated "WW15", possibly to avoid assigning a 3-digit building number. The prefix NE appears to be used for buildings north of Main Street, even for structures actually located due north of other buildings designated with N.

Buildings that are far from the main campus are prefixed OC, for off campus. There are no buildings prefixed with S, since the campus is bordered at its southern edge by the Charles River.

To identify a particular room within a building, the room number is simply appended to the building number, using a "-" (e.g. Room 26–100, a large first-floor auditorium in Building 26). The floor number is indicated in the usual way, by the leading digit(s) of the room number, with a leading digit 0 indicating a basement location.

The practice of identifying buildings by number is a long-standing tradition at MIT. Although sometimes ridiculed as evidence of an "engineering mindset", and referred to as "a system that disorients outsiders", this system is somewhat logical, and allows members of the MIT community to quickly locate a classroom they may never have seen before. Contrast this system with the building identification at nearby Harvard University, where knowing the location of "Maxwell-Dworkin" will not help in locating "Claverson" or "Larsen" — no matter how many years of experience one may have, one either knows these locations or has no idea where they may be. Under the MIT numbering scheme, community members will know approximately where Building NW95 must be, even if they have never been near there. Using the MIT building number system, students can even extrapolate a building number for a fanciful future annexation of Cambridge City Hall.

Most MIT buildings do have names, which can be found on many maps, or carved near the entrance, molded into a bronze plaque, or lettered onto a glass window. Many buildings are popularly known by name (e.g. "Kresge Auditorium"), even as individual rooms are identified by number (e.g. W16-100). Some locations have dual designations in common use (e.g. "Huntington Hall", better known as "10–250", which is an auditorium located on the second floor, under the Great Dome in Building 10). Building names can also be obtained from either the interactive online or downloadable MIT map.

There are numerous minor refinements, tweaks, and exceptions in the room numbering and naming, providing plenty of material for a trivia contest, or for sussing out would-be imposters. The student-written MIT guide, How To Get Around MIT (HowToGAMIT) devotes almost 4 pages of small print to details of MIT geography.