Talk:Kresge Auditorium

Significance Tag
Someone placed the tag on this page. I will remove it in a few days unless there is consensus to leave it. Nationalparks 06:31, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I placed it there. Besselfunctions 14:28, 28 January 2007 (UTC)


 * And you placed one on the MIT Chapel, as well. Since Google returns 137,000 results for "Kresge Auditorium", I will remove the tag. Nationalparks 16:36, 28 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Stanford University, Indiana University, Bowdoin College, Wayne State University, and DePauw University all have a Kresege Auditorium. So it follows that Google would be a poor way of establishing the notability of this building at MIT. Besselfunctions 17:52, 28 January 2007 (UTC)


 * There are books on the building, but the article does not make the significance of this building clear. I know it's impossible for Wikipedia to hold up to its standards, but why not try? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Besselfunctions (talk • contribs) 18:14, 28 January 2007 (UTC).

Uncited but possibly useful material
I removed the following material as uncited, and unencyclopedic in style. It might contain a grain of truth, but needs to be documented before being added back: "The story concerning the roof was that it had strain gages embedded within it at regular intervals to study the stresses within the concrete (which was proportionally thinner than an eggshell). Unfortunately the wiring diagram for the gages was lost so the data was unusable."

Reify-tech (talk) 12:13, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

I attended the inauguration of the auditorium. When the diminutive five-and-dime magnate S S Kresge was called upon to formally present the building to MIT, he declared he had paid for the occasion and would use the opportunity to talk. He gave an engaging account of an up-from-nowhere life story laced with homely advice. As he turned to take his seat after the talk, MIT's president James Killian grabbed Kresge by the tail of his academic gown and asked if he hadn't forgotten something. Oh, yes, the presentation of the building! In the next day's Boston Globe, Kresge's unscheduled talk totally overshadowed the occasion's official keynote speech by a UN ambassador.

But that's a sidelight. Apropos of structural integrity: Back then, before the advent of high-quality digital modeling, there was concern about the accuracy of the roof-design calculations. Engineers monitored the sag of the roof as construction-scaffolding jacks were lowered. When the sag continued beyond expectations, they stopped and installed precautionary columns in the side arches. I cannot cite a source, but if my recollection is correct, the columns far antedate the 1980s as described in the article. Mdmi (talk) 14:02, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

Error in Location
on wikipedia's list of contemporary amphitheaters (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_contemporary_amphitheatres), Kresge Auditorium is listed under Michigan, Interlochen. Randallimai (talk) 21:33, 14 December 2016 (UTC)randall imai