East Campus reopens following two years of renovations
Joshua Oki ’27: “Living in EC feels like a fever dream”
Vivian Hir–The Tech
MIT’s East Campus (EC) dormitory reopened in August 2025 following two years of renovations. EC initially opened in Fall 1924 as MIT’s second undergraduate dormitory, housing 373 undergraduate students in two five-story buildings called the parallels. During the past century, EC has garnered a reputation for its creative, alternative, and eccentric culture.
Due to the renovations, MIT has upgraded EC from a Tier 3 to a Tier 1 dorm, featuring new amenities such as elevators, upgraded kitchens and hall lounges, and air conditioning. Rooming costs are now $7,498 per semester for a single. For comparison, a single in the Tier 3 dorm Random Hall costs $6,125 per semester for the 2025-2026 academic year. New windows on the ends of the corridors allow for more natural lighting in the building. Furthermore, the hallways have large, removable mural boards for student artwork, which have already been filled with paintings of cats, hall logos, and more. These changes reflect the role of murals in EC culture since at least the 1970s.
“Living in EC feels like a fever dream,” EC Executive Committee member Joshua Oki ’27 said. “It’s fancier than what [we] were expecting, but we’ve quickly transformed the place into a place that feels like home.”
From renovation to reopening
Although the renovations were announced in 2021, work did not begin until Summer 2023. According to Housing & Residential Services (HRS) Communications Director Ashley Kennedy, HRS worked together with the East Campus student government and house team, along with the Division of Student Life (DSL), to ensure a smooth transition for the reopening of EC. “Over the course of four years, student leaders and DSL staff held more than 100 meetings to work through all aspects of the project, from designing floor layouts to determining policies before reopening,” Kennedy wrote.
The East Campus Reopening Committee (ECRC), one of the three major committees, oversaw the development of EC-specific policies, including guidelines for murals and East Campus Approved Cats (ECACs). In addition, the committee was responsible for selecting items and furnishings for spaces such as the makerspace, fitness room, and music room, collaborating with architectural firm William Rawn Associates. Students contributed by choosing wall colors and advocating for amenities, including enlarged floor lounges, enhanced kitchen appliances to support students cooking for themselves, and a pinball machine in Talbot Lounge.
Residents, however, have reported conflict with HRS regarding muraling policies and flag placement. While murals were once painted directly on the walls of hallways, rooms, and doors, the new policy restricts painting to removable panels. According to the EC renovation FAQ page, there are no official plans for ceiling or in-room murals.
During renovations, EC residents were relocated to other on-campus dorms. According to EC Head of House Sandy Alexandre, the EC community used a dedicated lounge space in the Student Center basement to preserve “a sense of community despite being dispersed.” Furthermore, the EC house team hired a Community Liaison each year (Regina Lee and Katherine Pan), a graduate student who took on an “expanded role” of a GRA, who worked with Area Director Kat Howell to support students in the EC community. “All of these efforts combined allowed students to continue affiliating with their original halls, even while living across different dorms,” Alexandre wrote.
Alexandre also stated that guaranteeing a smooth transition from EC’s renovation phase to its reopening can be difficult, given that each resident approaches “shared living in their own way.” As a result, Alexandre and Associate Head of House Joaquin Terrones ’99 hosted a listening tour right before the reopening of the dorm to learn more about residents’ thoughts, concerns, and goals for their living space. Alexandre found the listening tour “valuable” as it provided a “pulse on the community” and an idea of the dorm’s “shared norms.” Despite the challenges that come with reopening, she is excited to return to EC after renovations. “It feels great to be [at] home,” Alexandre wrote.
For House Operations Manager Nicholas Perron, a new member of the EC house team, it has been enjoyable meeting the residents and learning about each of the ten halls’ unique floor cultures. What stood out to Perron was how the renovations “balanced the preservation of historic architectural details with the modernization of building systems and infrastructure.”
EC President Hanu Snyder ’26 and Vice President River Adkins ’26 did not respond to The Tech’s request for comment by the time of publication.
Continuing traditions and culture
Despite the renovations, EC residents were proactive in transmitting their dorm culture to the next generation of MIT undergraduates. Many EC traditions are location-dependent; for example, FredFest and Build use the EC courtyard. As a result, the Executive Committee put tremendous effort into publicizing events and enforcing attendance at House Committee meetings.
According to ECRC member Evan Barkho ’27, many parts of EC culture have “stayed continuous,” particularly through initiatives like the East Campus website and the sustained rushing of first-year students. EC affiliates continued to host “hall rush” events over the past two years to recruit members of the classes of 2027 and 2028 onto their halls; many of these recruits have become permanent members of these halls. Resident Ace Chun ‘28 said that the EC community “has been trying really hard to bring back the sense of home and freedom of expression that defined and welcomed students prior to renovations.”
East Campus continued their tradition of “Build” for Residential Exploration (REX) 2025, which has taken place on the EC courtyard since before 2002; in 2023 and 2024, EC affiliates constructed a three-story-tall wooden fort on Briggs Field. This year, with the reopening of the EC courtyard, residents constructed the fort on their own grounds, along with a twenty-seven-foot tall wooden roller coaster. The construction was sponsored by Thrive Capital.
“It’s kind of awesome to wake up every morning and see a bunch of people working on the coaster at 10:00 AM,” EC Executive Committee member James Randall ’28 said. “There’s so much stuff we can do. Everybody’s so creative. Everybody’s brilliant. It’s peak.”