Preserving a building's memories through design
Clip: 11/24/2026 | 57sVideo has Closed Captions
Diller preserved the old building while designing the MIT School of Architecture and Planning.
Elizabeth Diller was in charge of designing the new space for the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, which took over the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse in Boston. Diller wanted to keep the memory of the old building—previously a century-old storage facility built to protect the valuables of Boston's wealthiest families—alive by preserving and exposing its structure.
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Support for American Masters is provided by AARP, The Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Thea Petschek Iervolino Foundation, Burton P. and Judith B. Resnick Foundation, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation,...
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Preserving a building's memories through design
Clip: 11/24/2026 | 57sVideo has Closed Captions
Elizabeth Diller was in charge of designing the new space for the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, which took over the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse in Boston. Diller wanted to keep the memory of the old building—previously a century-old storage facility built to protect the valuables of Boston's wealthiest families—alive by preserving and exposing its structure.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(gentle music) - Buildings carry memories, and when we knock down buildings, we knock away all the memories.
Histories of cities, the histories of cultures.
So by exposing this and not covering it over, not painting it, not glossing it over, but presenting it, it becomes very much alive, and part of a future life of a building.
(gentle music) I feel like this is going to be a place for creative work.
I have no idea what students and faculty are going to cook up here, and I don't want to know.
I think that's the best thing, is to make things for future use that you can't possibly imagine today.
(gentle music)
NewDesigning a museum that embraces the public
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Liz Diller and Ric Scofidio prioritized making the ICA a civic building for the public. (1m 41s)
NewLiz Diller and Ric Scofidio's first major building project
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How Liz and Ric won their bid to design the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Boston. (2m 15s)
NewLiz Diller & Ric Scofidio: Architect Provocateurs
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Learn how architects Liz Diller and Ric Scofidio transformed cityscapes around the world. (1m 39s)
NewMerging art and performance with architecture
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Liz and Ric's design studio was a unique, cross-disciplinary blend of art and architecture. (1m 45s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship
Support for PBS provided by:
Support for American Masters is provided by AARP, The Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Thea Petschek Iervolino Foundation, Burton P. and Judith B. Resnick Foundation, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation,...