This insider's account of the MIT campus is wise, witty, trenchant, and teacherly, as are the architects we meet here who guide this institution in what the protagonists describe as a 'faith-based, ' 'optimistic, ' 'democratic, ' and 'messy' process of fundamentally rethinking its environments. Imagining MIT invites its readers into a vicarious urban design charrette that is, above all, fun--as are the new buildings Mitchell helps us read, critique, understand, and appreciate. --Diana Chapman Walsh, President, Wellesley College