Here’s a breakdown of the rooms we typically reserve with some details.
CAC Spaces
Sala de Puerto Rico
Large room on the second floor of the Student Center with parquet floor. It holds our dances quite comfortably. The acoustics are best if you place the stage on one of the short sides of the room. We usually request three folding tables for this room for gate, flyers, and refreshments. This is our favorite room for dances. Cancellation deadline is 3 weeks in advance.
Lobdell Dining Hall
The dining hall on the second floor of the Student Center. Although this room can feel a bit cramped with 10 squares, it has the advantage of having natural areas for socializing, plus a balcony for watching the formations from above. We use the existing tables for gate, flyers, and refreshments. Moving all the tables and chairs off the floor is usually the job of the CAC employees although they always appreciate a hand if they are running behind. Resetting the tables and chairs is our responsibility and is overseen by the person in charge of breakdown. Because of the hassle of resetting the tables, this is our second choice for dances, but it is a close second. Cancellation deadline is 3 weeks in advance.
Morss Hall
The dining room on the first floor of Walker Memorial. It is far from the Student Center without easy parking for our caller and cuer. It is often too hot in the Summer (ask people to bring fans) and the tables and chairs must be moved and reset by the club. This location places a distant third choice to Lobdell and the Sala for dances, but sometimes, we just don’t have a choice. Cancellation deadline is 3 weeks in advance.
Lobby 13
The lobby in building 13 by the elevators is not as far from the Student Center as Morss Hall, but it has many of the same problems. The temperature is greatly affected by the external weather simply because people are always cutting through the lobby and exiting to the outside. There is no nearby parking for our caller and cuer. At least there are no tables to move. The real problem with Lobby 13 is the acoustics. The lobby echoes in a way the makes it hard to hear what the caller and cuer are saying. We've been in Lobby 13 some in 2014 and have been finding ways to make the acoustics work better. (Comment from Veronica: Lobby 13 seems unpopular enough that we should only choose it over smaller rooms when we know we'll need the space – like during a class.) Cancellation deadline is 48 hours in advance.
W20-407 and W20-491
These virtually identical rooms are on the fourth floor of the Student Center. We can fit six squares in a pinch, but we are much more comfortable with only four. These are ideal rooms for our smaller dance workshops (squares or rounds). Cancellation deadline is 48 hours in advance.
West Lounge
This room is next to Sala and across the hall from Lobdell. It is a good choice for walkthrus when dancing is in either of these rooms. It easily holds 2 squares, and is a tighter fit with 3-4. Also reasonable for small workshops. Cancellation deadline is 48 hours in advance.
20 Chimneys
This is a big room, but it's carpeted, so CAC does not allow us to dance in them, but they are ideal for meetings of officers and committees. It's on the 3rd floor of the student center and we're not allowed to use the back door (that exists onto Lobdell balcony), so it should be a second choice to West Lounge. We don't usually book it, but Mezzanine Lounge is a near identical room across the hall from it. Cancellation deadline is 48 hours in advance.
PDR 1–3 (Private Dining Rooms)
These are small carpeted rooms located on the third floor of the Student Center between Lobdell and the Coffeehouse. Since they are carpeted, CAC does not allow us to dance in them, but they are ideal for meetings of officers and committees. Cancellation deadline is 48 hours in advance.
RRA & RRB
These mirror image rooms are located in the basement of Kresge. They're good for up to 4 squares, so while not a good choice for Tuesdays, they're great for smaller groups. Cancellation deadline is 48 hours in advance.
Classrooms
These are not booked through the CAC. This means they are available during the standard CAC “blackout” periods.
For small workshops (1-2 squares) 4-261, 4-265, 5-134, 5-217, 5-233, 5-234, 5-217, 36-156, and 66-168 are all reasonable choices. Workshop rooms goes into more detail.
When filling in a request you'll want to list these preferred attributes: tile floor, flat room, moveable furniture.
36-112
This room can comfortably hold four squares, five in a pinch. 36-156, next door, can be reserved as a room to hang out in while not dancing.
E15 Lower Atrium (E15-000LA)
This is our preferred space when CAC rooms are unavailable. It is a reasonably large space that can fit 6 or more squares. https://www.media.mit.edu/groups/e14-and-e15-event-spaces/overview/ has details about the space and how to reserve it. We do not currently have a username/password for the reservation system, and have in the past just communicated via e-mail. If desired, it might be useful to ask for a login. (Our normal CAC login works, but doesn't provide any useful info.)
The normal price is $100/hour, with 2 hour required setup and breakdown each, and a required custodial charge. However, in summer 2017, they gave us a rate of $25/hour with 1 hour required setup and breakdown, and waived the required custodial charge, for a total of $137.50 per night. Chairs and tables are available from the adjacent Bartos theater at no extra charge. If useful, the piano can be moved a few feet to be more under the stairs.
- File a work request on Atlas ahead of time to request additional cooling when using this space in the summer (we have no data about using this space in the winter). The bathrooms, however, will be hot regardless of whether additional cooling is provided. It appears that a single Atlas request is sufficient for multiple consecutive weeks.
- Be careful when moving tables in and out of the Bartos theater. One week, a table leg caught a corner and the table broke.
- Since the required custodial charge is waived, be extra thorough about cleaning up. Someone should be assigned the role of ensuring the furniture is returned to the Bartos theater, the piano is moved back, and that any messes are cleaned up.
EVENT PROMOTION/ USE OF MEDIA LAB LOGO: Unless the MIT Media Lab is an organizer, host, collaborator, or sponsor of this event, you may not:
1) list the Media Lab in any of the event materials, or
2) use the Media Lab logo or image in any of the event materials.
This applies to invitations and all promotional materials: print, online, and social media. When listing the location of this event, use the street address. Do not name the Media Lab as the event location.
DAPER Spaces
If E15 is also unavailable, we can fall back DAPER spaces. These rooms are behind restricted access turnstyles, so we have to submit a list of possible attendees (however, often people are let in when they say they're there for the event, and names aren't checked).
As of 2016, the prices were T-Club $17.50/hr, MAC court $32.50/hr, and tables are $6 each (not time dependent).
T-Club Lounge
This space has wood floors that are good for dancing, fits 4 squares comfortably, and maybe fits 6 squares. This costs roughly $80 for a night. As of Summer 2017, we no longer like this space because of lack of accessibility, lack of seating (although we could pay for chairs, but there may not be much room for them), lack of nearby unlocked restrooms, and the hallway is warm (although the room itself does have air conditioning).
MAC Court
This space has track-like material on the ground. It holds 8 squares. It costs roughly $140 for a night and has air conditioning.
Spaces worth looking into
E19-202 is a 1365 square foot department space reservable through the schedules office. (For comparison, 36-112 is 1035 square feet.) The photos on classrooms.mit.edu suggest that the space could potentially work. https://floorplans.mit.edu/cgi-bin-db-mit/wdbmitscript.asp?report=brl&item=E19 says "E19-202 1,365 CONFERENCE ROOM CAREER SERVICES".
The schedules office writes "Room E19-202 is a department space, and is not managed by the Registrar’s Office. I can refer your request over to that department, but I can’t guarantee turnaround time or availability. For DLC (department/labs/center) managed spaces, our team creates a request and refers it over to the individual department on a student group's behalf. If the Squares are still interested in using E19-202 for your meetings, I can create a separate request in the system. However, it can sometimes take quite a while to hear back."
MIT Music and Theater Arts may have some spaces in W97 available. https://mta.mit.edu/spaceresources does not list the available spaces in W97, but other student groups have used spaces that may work for Tech Squares.
The Foundry is a community space a few blocks from the Kendall Square T stop. As of 2022, the price for the 1079 sq ft dance studio (with "sprung wooden flooring"), the 1335 sq ft Red Multi Room, or the 4256 sq ft "Community Hall" for a weekly recurring reservation is $35-40/hr. The one-time non-weekly price is $70-80/hr. A sliding scale is available, based on organization operating income. I assume this would be based on MIT operating income, not on Tech Squares operating income. If it is based on Tech Squares operating income, though, the cost would be free. Unfortunately, the venue also closes at 8 PM.
The Community Art Center (119 Windsor St, a block from Royal East) appears to have a few spaces that would work. http://www.communityartcenter.org/space-rental-inquiries has information about space rental, but they did not respond to a webform inquiry in Summer 2017, so try using e-mail instead. http://schoolofhonk.org/ uses their space, so you can check some of their YouTube videos to get a feel for the space. Unfortunately their web page says space rental ends at 10 PM. I assume this means we have to be out of the building by 10 PM, but maybe we only have to end our event at 10 PM, in which case using the space may be more feasible. We do not have any details about cost at this time.
The Dance Complex (https://www.dancecomplex.org/studio-space-rental/) may also be an option, although availability may be limited. Most of their spaces do not allow street shoes, although Studio 7 on the first floor might not have a shoe requirement; theater performances have taken place in studio 7 and guests (and probably performers) wore shoes.
Unavailable spaces
E62-233
This is a large carpeted space with easily movable furniture. Unfortunately, the Sloan reservation page says that non-Sloan groups will be directed to the regular classrooms reservation site, and the schedules office says only Sloan groups can reserve Sloan classrooms. roomrequest@sloan.mit.edu also confirmed that this was the case.
Siteman Dining Room
This is large open space in E62 that is also only available to Sloan groups.