Well before construction of the MIT.nano building began last summer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s senior project manager Travis Wanat spent months spearheading an effort to determine the prime location for the reported $350-million facility for nanoscience and nanotechnology research. The slightest vibration can wiggle miniscule elements under specialized microscopes and imaging equipment, wreaking havoc on nanoscale experiments. Wanat’s team considered proximity to power lines and mechanical units of abutting buildings as well as subway tunnels and bustling Memorial Drive. In the end, they measured underground magnetic and electromagnetic fields as well as vibrations at five different campus locations. “In order to produce better quality research, we needed to reduce those two factors,” Wanat says.
As it happened, the ideal location for the building—slated to open in 2018—was also one of the hardest possible places to shoehorn a 200,000-sq-ft state-of-the-art facility. Adjacent to MIT’s iconic Great Dome, the parcel sits in the heart of campus. The foundations of abutting structures will deaden research-threatening noises, but those same structures make scheduling construction and delivery vehicles extremely difficult. The 100,000-sq-ft site’s most feasible entry point is a 12-ft-high underpass through a nearby building.