Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) has returned to its native city of Cambridge
with lease of a building MIT has purchased from Polaroid Corporation.
Analog will convert the building at 21 Osborn Street into a
manufacturing plant to produce tiny accelerometers-electronic motion
sensors-used in automobile air bags. When the manufacturing plant opens
next year, it is expected to create about 100 jobs, a spokesman for
Analog Devices said.
The modern four-story, 120,000-square foot brown brick building is
situated on a 2.75-acre lot. Visible from Massachusetts Avenue and
Albany Street, the building forms a triangle with MIT's Graphic Arts
Building (N42) and the High Voltage Research Laboratory (N10).
In purchasing the building, MIT Senior Vice President William R. Dickson
cited MIT's desire to strengthen the campus, the City of Cambridge and
the Cambridge community by continuing MIT's tradition of attracting high
tech companies to the city. A portion of the land was occupied by part
of MIT's Instrumentation Lab prior to 1977. The lease and the $20
million purchase and sale were announced Feb. 13.
"This new facility will permit us to re-establish our presence in
Cambridge, where Analog Devices was founded some 30 years ago," said
Franklin Weigold, Analog vice president. "It also continues our long-
term relationship with MIT, which has provided ADI numerous key
employees, including many of our best technical contributors and our co-
founder, chairman, and CEO, Ray Stata." Mr. Stata is a member of the
MIT Corporation.
