Drama Groups May Get Use of New MIT Hall

An M.I.T. official indicated yesterday that a new Tech auditorium, to be completed this winter, will probably be available to Harvard theatrical productions next year.

The new building, to be constructed in the form of a spherical triangle, is to be divided into a theater and a large lecture hall. The theater will be on the lower level, and is designed with a 200 capacity.

Financing of the auditorium and a proposed chapel was made possible by a specific grant of $1,500,000 from the Kresge Foundation, given in July, 1950.

Glass Walls Used

Plans for the building (above) were designed by Eero Saarinen, Detroit architect, with the cooperation of the two MIT professors of Architecture. The spherical surface will be slightly raised from the ground at its vertices, and supported by heavy abutments. Between the corners will be segmented glass window-walls.

The new theater may be the answer for the Harvard dramatic groups' current search for a theater. Despite its limited capacity, the Tech theater will be specially adapted to dramatic productions and may be the ideal stage for the student plays. There is no theater currently available for the groups' use.

The theater and hall are both being specially equipped with acoustical devices including suspended baffles to prevent the flow of noise from the back to the front of the room. The theater also will be used for dramatic productions and concerts sponsored by MIT.