MIT Building 20 asbestos liability

Tom's role in negotiating the demolition of Building 20 and the development of the Stata Center — proposing that engineering and science compete to raise funds. Engineering raised $115M in 18 months; final Stata Center cost $430M.

We talked about economic sanctions that have to do with environmental things. We started to talk about social things where people want to get the lead out of things. And people will pay a fortune — I was actually the person who helped get rid of Building 20. You don't know Building 20, you know the Stata Center, but in World War Two, to develop radar, they built Building 20, which was on the site of what is now the Stata Center. The building was nothing but asbestos, but it was considered a wonderful incubator because it was wood-framed and you could tear down walls. Some people wanted to turn it into a national historic landmark for all the great innovative science that had been done in Building 20. I looked at it and said: that's a big asbestos liability, someday it'll cost us a fortune to bulldoze that and get rid of it — we'll have to clear out Cambridge and wrap it in a big plastic bubble because someone's afraid we're going to release some asbestos.