Last Moments in Cambridge...

Our final task was across Cambridge. Along the way, we passed MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research and Ursula von Rydingsvard’s Scientia, a 25-foot tall bronze sculpture.

We also saw this beautiful street art...

...Cambridge City Hall, built in 1889, was the first place in America to issue same-sex marriage licenses starting in 2004...

...and this cool reflection in a mirrored building.

Our final stop was at Mike’s Pastry, infamous for their cannoli. While we had witnessed hour-plus long lines at the original Mike’s in North End, founded in 1946, we had the new Cambridge location to ourselves.

Originating in Sicily, cannoli are deep fried pastry dough filled with a slightly sweet and creamy filling, usually made from ricotta cheese. With around 20 varieties to choose from, I preferred the peanut butter and chocolate. After our snack, we dashed back to Andrew’s, grabbed my luggage and walked to the subway so I could head to the airport and my overnight flight back to Amsterdam. What a fun trip! Looking back now, I’m so glad that I had the chance to go with Sally when I did because Andrew had to leave Boston over three months early after his lab closed due to the coronavirus.

The Stata Center.....

By far this was the most unusual building we spotted. Designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, it opened in 2004, with an unfinished appearance.

A mirrored side allowed for a selfie and the steps provided a great place to eat lunch from the cafeteria inside.

Inside we also found Non-Object (Plane) by Anish Kapoor, most famously known for Cloud Gate (aka The Bean) in Chicago. This 16-feet tall and 7-feet wide concave form of mirror-polished stainless steel provides a counterpoint to the eccentric forms and metal cladding of the building in which its housed.

Like Kapoor’s Vertigo in Tilburg, we appeared upside down in the mirror...

...until we were close enough to appear upright. Unlike in Holland, this sculpture has another hanging above it which interacts with the mirror...

...a giant cascade of paper birds.

According to MIT’s website: The word hack at MIT usually refers to a clever, benign, and “ethical” prank or practical joke, which is both challenging for the perpetrators and amusing to the MIT community (and sometimes even the rest of the world). Note that this has nothing to do with computer (or phone) hacking (which we call “cracking”). In 1991, a group of hackers turned a fire hydrant into a drinking fountain in front of the largest lecture hall on campus. The Fire Hose Drinking Fountain was quite appropriate because former MIT President Weisner coined a colorful and often quoted description of the MIT educational experience: Getting an education from MIT is like taking a drink from a fire hose. 

The side of the building facing the street was also quite funky.

MIT List Visual Arts Center...

The Wiesner Building, designed in 1985 by I.M. Pei, had a similar roof design as the glass pavilion he designed for the JFK Library. Inside the building was the MIT List Visual Arts Center, which was small, but fascinating.

The main exhibit, In Between Glances, featured German contemporary visual artist Alicja Kwade. In Object-Tree Works items seem to emerge from the interior of tree trunks. Using a robotic arm, she was able to make the forms without using a traditional saw.

Trans-for-Men 11 includes one granite boulder and 10 permutations, made from 3-D scans of the original boulder, separated by double sided mirrors.

Light Touch of Totality was my favorite piece. It features 5 stainless steel rings, each with a 16-foot diameter, adorned with over 1,400 strands of beads made from wood and lapis lazuli.

Normally I wouldn’t photograph an ordinary bowl and vase, but these aren’t ordinary by any means. The original functional objects have been ground up very small, combined with epoxy resin, glass and brass, and those particles have then been used to cast new forms reminiscent of ancient Greek pottery. You might be surprised to learn this bowl was once the artist’s iPhone...

.,.and this vase was her Macbook.

At first glance, Against the Run is a freestanding clock on the plaza outside of the museum.

In actuality, the minute and hour hands tell the correct time, but the second-hand goes counterclockwise one second and then returns to 12:00, while the clock’s face rotates to the left each second.  

Mother Nature was kind enough to put on a show on the adjoining mirrored building.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

On my last day in Cambridge, Sally and I took the short walk from Andrew’s to MIT, where my father graduated in 1962 with a BSc in Electrical Engineering. The first thing we spotted was Alchemist by Jaume Plensa made out of numeric symbols crafted in stainless steel, commissioned by an anonymous donor for MIT’s 150th annivesary in 2011. 

Next we took a peak into the MIT Chapel, built in 1954.

Just outside the chapel we noticed a temporary shelter and went closer to investigate. Apparently it was built for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and the structure is called a sukkah.

Our next stop was Baker House, built in 1949, and my father’s dorm for four years. We tried following a student inside, but got quickly caught by security and instructed to leave. 

Originally built for men, it went co-ed in 1974. My dad had already been out of school for ten years when Baker House became famous for its annual Piano Drop from the roof to the ground below.

The backside of the building overlooks the Charles River.

Nearby we spotted some cute jack-o’-lanterns...

...and the Great Dome. Built in 1916, apparently it was fashioned after the library at Columbia University which in turn was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.

Final Night in Boston...

That evening I took Sally and Andrew out to dinner to thank them for putting me up and for putting up with me. We passed Trinity Church, built in 1870, along our way to the Prudential Tower for dinner.

It was nice to finally have a chance to have dinner with Andrew. Although I thought perhaps he’d booked a spot at the restaurant on the 50th floor, he chose a nice place on the 2nd floor that a colleague had recommended and was delicious. We made our way up to the observation deck after dinner and the view was completely obscured by rain, so it’s just as well that he opted for quality over height.

Afterwards we went across the street to Max Brenner Chocolate Bar for dessert.

I had a chocolate cocktail and we shared these two truly decadent concoctions.

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum....

The following day, Sally and I took a long walk from a subway station...

...to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, which was dedicated in 1979 to commemorate the 35th President’s life and accomplishments during his short presidency.

Designed by the architect behind the pyramid at the Louvre, I.M. Pei apparently considered this library “the most important commission” in his life.

While the outside was boxy and unremarkable, the huge windows soaring up 115 feet while overlooking Dorchester Bay were incredible.

It was crazy to realize that I wasn’t that far away from this spot when my parents first learned that Kennedy had been assassinated on November 22, 1963. I was just three months old when my mother found out while ironing and watching her soap opera in our apartment in Arlington, while my father was sent home from work at the MIT Instrumentation Lab in Cambridge. 

With so much toxic rhetoric in politics in the US today, it was nice to take a step back in time to hear such inspiring words. To be honest, I was nervous about how the museum would depict the assassination, but the tragedy was handled somberly without being graphic.

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 during Kennedy’s presidency and he visited West Berlin in June 1963. Of course, he didn’t live to see the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, but this piece of it was in his library.

While I had never learned much about Kennedy in history class and Sally isn’t even American, we both thoroughly enjoyed learning about this incredible man. While they haven’t even broken ground yet, I hope someday to be able to visit a similar library for Obama.

It was a gray day, but it was great to have a scenic walk back to the subway.