Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge | MCU Location Scout

Riri walking past exterior of MIT building.

My method goes beyond rules and red tape. I want to continue Mr. Stark’s legacy and revolutionize safety.

Quad (Night)

The camera cranes down the side of a building to reveal Riri walking outside a school-like building. She walks into a quad with a high-tech-looking building. Later, she sells a gadget to a student that creates a force field around them.

The building is 771 Spring Street NW in Atlanta, with the quad being just to the right as part of Midtown’s Technology Square.

  • Exterior of MIT building.
  • Riri walking into MIT quad.
  • Riri and a student in an energy globe in an MIT quad.

MAP

Quad (Day)

Riri crosses the MIT quad during the day.

This footage was taken from (or an outtake from) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It was not filmed specifically for Ironheart, as no new filming with the cast took place in Cambridge. Riri is crossing through the Martin Luther King, Jr Garden heading east towards MIT Building 7.

  • Riri walking through MIT quad.

MAP

Stairs, Handoff, and Library

In the montage, Riri walks up some stairs, exchanges some goods with one student with a city view behind them, exchanges paper sacks with a second student, and hands a book to a third student in the stacks of a library.

All of these shots were filmed in the Central Library in downtown Atlanta, at One Margaret Mitchell Square. The second shot, where it looks like the characters may be on the roof, was filmed on one of the higher floors, by a plate glass window (two seams between the glass are visible on the left, and just behind Riri) overlooking the Residence Inn (right) in downtown.

  • Riri walking up stair sin MIT building.
  • Riri taking money from a man by a large window with downtown outside.
  • Riri and another student in an MIT building.
  • Riri and a student in the MIT library.

MAP

Classroom

Riri is shown going to at least one class, though her main efforts are making money and working on her Ironheart armor.

This was also filmed at the Atlanta Central Library, in Auditorium 1 on the 5th Floor, as evidenced by the image from the library’s Events Center page.

  • Riri sitting in a crowded MIT classroom.
  • Riri sitting in a crowded MIT classroom.

MAP

Hangar 17 Lab, Stark Annex

Several moments of Riri working in a lab, identified by signage as Hangar 17 Stark Annex, set the stage to showcase her talents. Once she is expelled, she flies out the front door in her Ironheart armor and over the MIT great dome, which was added digitally to the shot.

This lab was filmed at Chemistry Agency at 1045 W Marietta St NW in Atlanta. It was a complete fluke to have found the exterior of this location while looking for something else.

  • Riri in an MIT laboratory.
  • Riri in an MIT laboratory.
  • Riri and Professor Wilkes in an MIT laboratory.
  • Riri in an MIT laboratory.
  • Security guards by door to an MIT laboratory.
  • Riri in an MIT laboratory.
  • Exterior to an MIT laboratory.
  • Ironheart flying past the MIT Great Dome.

MAP

Dean Choi’s Office

Riri gets in trouble with the school administration and Dean Choi for selling academic information to other students. She is ultimately expelled.

Since no other footage for this series was filmed in Cambridge and Jim Rash was available for the previous sequence in the science lab, this office is presumed to be in downtown Atlanta. It took some searching, but it was finally discovered as a room in The Candler Hotel, 127 Peachtree Road NE, on the Park Place NE side of the building. It makes sense that this was used for filming, as the hotel is just across the street from the Atlanta Library, where previous scenes (above) were shot.

  • Riri in Dean Choi's office.
  • Dean Choi in her office.
  • Riri, Professor Wiles, and Dean Choi in her office.

Street View

MAP

School Aerial

Ironheart flies away from campus, over the Charles River, and past the city before setting a course to Chicago!

This digitally augmented plate footage was filmed above MIT and the Charles River.

  • Ironheart flying over MIT and Cambridge.
  • Ironheart flying over the Charles River.
  • Ironheart flying over the Charles River.
  • The Charles River and MIT.

MAP

(Ironheart S01E01, 2025)