Aconspicuous feature of many New England cities, including the major Connecticut River Valley mill towns, is the survival of factory buildings several generations beyond their original use. On Thursday evening, October 25, a panel discussion will explore the many "lives" of factory buildings with a special focus on nearby North Adams, home of MASS MoCA, one of the most celebrated "reused" factory buildings in the United States.

According to Karen Remmler, codirector of the Weissman Center for Leadership, "Factories have defined the character of communities from even before the onset of the Industrial Revolution and have exerted influences not only economically, but socially as well. I hope that our speakers address the importance of factory buildings for shaping communities across class divisions even as these structures are inscribed by the working conditions in factories."

The panel is the second in the yearlong series Building Meaning: Architecture and Public Space in the Third Millennium, which kicked off October 4 with a panel discussion titled "Women and Public Space." The Weissman Center is sponsoring the series of panels and discussions with leading architects, critics, urban planners, and specialists in adaptive reuse who are exploring key questions regarding how society shapes buildings and public spaces and how, in turn, architectural choices shape society.

At the October 25 event, Simeon Bruner will discuss his architectural design for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, known as MASS MoCA, and MHC art professor Anthony Lee will reveal an earlier historical moment of North Adams factory buildings, when Chinese workers were brought across the continent to break a strike there. Professor John Mullin of UMass will offer an overview of the shifting meanings of factories over the centuries. Karen Koehler, visiting assistant professor of art, who teaches a course on factory buildings, will moderate.

Located in North Adams, a factory town surrounded by imposing Berkshire mountains in the northwest corner of the Bay State, MASS MoCA represents an extraordinary project that converted a twenty-seven-building historic mill complex into a multi-disciplinary center for visual, performing, and media arts. More than a static display hall, MASS MoCA provides space, tools, and time for artists, cultural institutions, and businesses working in sculpture, theater, dance, film, digital media, and music. New work is created there in partnership with high-technology and new media companies. More information on MASS MoCA can be found at www.massmoca.org/index2.html.

According to Lee, whose work has given him a broad perspective on the changing fortunes of factory buildings in North Adams, the reuse of the factory complex as a museum has "raised property values and brought economic life back to a once-vibrant but recently downtrodden factory town. It has also made folks who have lived in North Adams for many years take more careful notice of the factory culture that has been officially replaced. So now there are two competing and institutionalized cultures in North Adams: one surrounding the avant-garde MASS MoCA and another celebrating the popular culture of the working classes. They are linked, but not at all seamlessly."

The panel discussion will begin at 7:30 pm at Gamble Auditorium.