The Ray and Maria Stata Center (pronounced /steɪtə/ STAY-ta) or Building 32 is a 720,000-square-foot (67,000 m2) academic complex designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The building opened for initial occupancy on March 16, 2004. It sits on the site of MIT's former Building 20, which housed the historic Radiation Laboratory, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Major funding for the project was provided by Ray Stata (MIT class of 1957) and Maria Stata. Other major funders include Bill Gates, Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr. (MIT class of 1954), Charles Thomas "E.B" Pritchard Hintze (a graduate and of JD Edwards, now Oracle) and Morris Chang of TSMC. Above the fourth floor, the building splits into two distinct structures: the Gates tower and the Dreyfoos tower.
Contained within the building are the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, as well as the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Academic celebrities such as Noam Chomsky and Ron Rivest have offices there. World Wide Web Consortium founder Tim Berners-Lee and free software movement founder Richard Stallman also have offices within.
