The Brown Computing Laboratory at 180 George Street was built in honor of Thomas J. Watson Sr. as a gift to Brown University from his wife and son. The building, completed in 1961, was originally constructed to house the IBM 7070 computer, the most advanced computing system on the east coast at the time. Architect Philip Johnson was chosen to design a building that would appropriately link the architectural past of College Hill with the future of emerging technology.

Bibliography:

“180 George Street at Brown University for Center for Computation and Visualization,” LLB Architects

–Providence’s Recent Past (2010), a PPS map by Ned Connors.

Last edited March 19, 2025, by Elisabeth Brown