Center for Information Technology

The Center for Information Technology opened in June of 1988. The five-story building, designed by the Cambridge Seven Associates and built by the Gilbane Building Company, brought together computer services which had been scattered through a number of buildings. Whitehall, a classroom building which had been unused for several years, was razed from the site on Brook Street to make way for the large building which extends all the way to Waterman Street. An appropriation of ten million dollars from the Department of Energy helped to defray the forty million dollar cost of the building. The “groundbreaking” for the CIT on October 11, 1986 involved no digging. Instead, an animated video tour of the building, created by students Sabrina Birner ’87 and Ben Rubin ’87, showed Whitehall disappearing and the CIT building rising floor by floor in its place. The dedication of the building as the Thomas J. Watson, Sr., Center for Information Technology took place October 7-8, 1988.