{"id":8405,"date":"2018-09-01T08:21:10","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T12:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=8405"},"modified":"2018-09-01T08:21:10","modified_gmt":"2018-09-01T12:21:10","slug":"mit-fort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/09\/01\/mit-fort\/","title":{"rendered":"For One Week Only, A Fort, Bridge And Trebuchet Rise At MIT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Early this week, a handful of students were up on ladders with power tools finishing construction for a monumental bridge arching across the courtyard of Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s East Campus residence hall at 3 Ames St. in Cambridge.<\/p>\n

The wooden span was joined by a two-level \u201cfort\u201d (basically a deck for hanging out), a wagon (for the nominal \u201cwild West\u201d theme), \u201cYOLO swings\u201d (imagine a carnival ride, but all wood), \u201cspace trainer\u201d and a trebuchet (to threaten the fort, I\u2019m told).<\/p>\n

The temporary project, which is due to come down by Tuesday, is part of how the residence hall welcomes\/attracts first-year students to Residential Exploration (REX) week, the time when students are invited to visit various dorms on the way to choosing where they want to live on campus.<\/p>\n

For many years, East Campus residence hall has stood out by constructing a temporary wooden roller coaster (that students ride) or fortress.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entirely student-run tradition dates back to 2004, when residents spontaneously decided to build a fully functioning roller coaster in the courtyard; after a few years of drawing increasing crowds (and official scrutiny), the coaster went on hiatus,\u201d MIT\u2019s Spectrum newsletter reported<\/a> in 2017. \u201cAugust 2014 marked its triumphant return, featuring a 130-foot-long wooden track complete with two hills. This time, the plans were created on a 3-D printer, reviewed by a professional architect, and awarded a building permit from the City of Cambridge\u2014along with approvals from MIT\u2019s Facilities Department and the Environment, Health & Safety Office.\u201c<\/p>\n

\n

Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms (and our great festivals) by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/a>
The space trainer, trebuchet and fort in the courtyard of Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s East Campus residence hall, Cambridge, Aug. 28, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Constructing<\/a>
Constructing the temporary bridge spanning the courtyard of Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s East Campus residence hall, Cambridge, Aug. 28, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The wagon, swings and fort in the courtyard of Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s East Campus residence hall, Cambridge, Aug. 28, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The temporary bridge spanning the courtyard of Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s East Campus residence hall, Cambridge, Aug. 28, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The swings in the courtyard of Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s East Campus residence hall, Cambridge, Aug. 28, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Constructing<\/a>
Constructing the temporary bridge spanning the courtyard of Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s East Campus residence hall, Cambridge, Aug. 28, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The temporary bridge spanning the courtyard of Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s East Campus residence hall, Cambridge, Aug. 28, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early this week, a handful of students were up on ladders with power tools finishing construction for a monumental bridge arching across the courtyard of Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s East Campus residence hall at 3 Ames St. in Cambridge. The wooden span was joined by a two-level \u201cfort\u201d (basically a deck for hanging out), a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,105,112],"tags":[42,326,428],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8405"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8417,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8405\/revisions\/8417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}