Lobby 7

Lobby 7 Here’s a little tribute to lobby 7. Since my start at MIT in January, I’ve walked through this lobby nearly every weekday to get to my office just a few feet down the infinite corridor. I enter with my morning coffee cup in hand, along with a horde of students and tourists, and I climb the iconic front steps and glance up at William Barton Rogers’ name â€" MIT’s founder â€" chiseled high up in the building’s façade. It’s a magnificent lobby all on its own, but even better for the kind of things that happen in this lobby every week. I’ve walked through in the morning and smiled at the many, many tourists with cameras taking pictures in front of the seal. I’ve stopped to watch the practice sessions of more than one student dance troupe  late at night.  I’ve heard the chancellor speak, seen the president dance, witnessed a hack, listened to a group of students jamming with guitars, passed by the MIT marching band, and gawked at a huge constructed green bug-like thing on stilts during CPW. Almost anything goes in this open, inclusive, majestic lobby. And today at 5:30, I’m going to find reasons to miss my train home and linger in the lobby just so I can hear the Ascoli Ensemble, MITs latest artist group in residence performing a free community concert of medieval music. Gotta love Lobby 7