 MIT 's School of Architecture , now the School of Architecture and Planning , was the first in the United States , and it has a history of commissioning progressive buildings . The first buildings constructed on the Cambridge campus , completed in 1916 , are sometimes called the " Maclaurin buildings " after Institute president Richard Maclaurin who oversaw their construction . Designed by William Welles Bosworth , these imposing buildings were built of reinforced concrete , a first for a non @-@ industrial – much less university – building in the US . Bosworth 's design was influenced by the City Beautiful Movement of the early 1900s , and features the Pantheon @-@ esque Great Dome housing the Barker Engineering Library . The Great Dome overlooks Killian Court , where graduation ceremonies are held each year . The friezes of the limestone @-@ clad buildings around Killian Court are engraved with the names of important scientists and philosophers . The spacious Building 7 atrium at 77 Massachusetts Avenue is regarded as the entrance to the Infinite Corridor and the rest of the campus . 
