Photo courtesy of Cresa Boston
Margulies Perruzzi Architects selected to design office for one of Boston’s largest leases this year
Boston – October 31, 2017 – Cresa Boston, a part of the world’s largest tenant-only commercial real estate firm, is pleased to announce that it has negotiated an 18.5-year lease of 250,000 SF at 121 Seaport Boulevard in Boston’s Seaport District on behalf of Needham-based PTC, a global provider of technology that transforms how companies design, manufacture, operate and service the “things” in the Internet of Things (IoT). In addition to lease negotiation, Cresa Boston will manage sublease and disposition services for PTC’s current lease at 140 Kendrick Street in Needham, Mass., and its project management team will oversee the buildout and relocation to PTC’s new global headquarters at 121 Seaport. Margulies Perruzzi Architects (MPA) has been selected to provide interior design services for PTC’s new headquarters.
Following a competitive RFP process, Cresa Boston was engaged by PTC as a global partner across multiple service lines, including site selection, lease administration, transaction management, workplace strategy, and project management. PTC is expected to house 1,000 of the company’s 6,000 worldwide employees at 121 Seaport, with an expected occupancy date of early 2019. As the first signed tenant, PTC has leased 63 percent of the building.
“It is an exciting time to be at PTC as we look forward to moving to the heart of Boston’s Innovation District and contributing to the technology innovation that has given rise to Boston’s global reputation as a hub for technology leadership,” said Eric Snow, senior vice president, Corporate Marketing, PTC. “121 Seaport’s design, amenities, and location made the selection of our new global headquarters an easy one. Cresa Boston, Skanska Development, and their respective partners were instrumental in helping us to achieve this major lease in a short time.”
Developed by Skanska Development, one of the world’s leading project development and construction groups, and designed by Boston-based CBT Architects, 121 Seaport is a 17-story, 400,000 SF, Class A elliptical-shaped glass office building now under construction in Boston’s Innovation District. Slated for base building completion in the first quarter of 2018, 121 Seaport boasts large floor plates, two floors of retail, and spectacular views of the Boston Harbor and Downtown. With progressive design and technologies, the highly-sustainable, energy-efficient building is targeting LEED Platinum certification and an anticipated 15 percent energy savings due to less direct solar exposure from the innovative elliptical design.
PTC will occupy the building’s top nine floors with direct access to the rooftop deck from the top floor and access to a common area with outdoor deck on the third floor. A design highlight of PTC’s new headquarters includes its Customer Experience Center (CXC), an interactive showcase for PTC’s industrial innovation platform and related solutions. PTC selected MPA to design a transformational workplace that is productive, persuasive, and integrated with exciting and disruptive new technologies of the future.
Founded in 1985, PTC revolutionized the computer aided design software market and, in the 1990s, brought to market the first web-based product lifecycle management system. Today, the company is recognized as a market leader in the Internet of Things and Augmented Reality – two of the most disruptive technology trends in decades. The company’s headquarters have been in the Greater Boston area since its inception. PTC expects that its new headquarters will be occupied by employees across all company operations, including executive leadership, customer success, research and development, sales, marketing, finance, and legal teams.
Jack Burns, Adam Subber and Dan Sullivan of Cresa Boston negotiated the lease for PTC, and Bill Anderson and Dave Martel of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented Skanska Development.
About Cresa
Cresa is the world’s largest tenant-only commercial real estate firm. By representing only one party – the tenant – Cresa avoids inherent conflicts of interest and provides conflict-free advice to clients. The firm leverages its expertise, market insight and years of experience to give clients leverage with the landlord. Cresa applies strategic solutions that reduce costs, improve operations and enhance the performance of a client’s workforce. Integrated services cover every aspect of a real estate transaction from site selection and financing to project management and relocation services. Cresa offers clients customized solutions with more than 60 offices in 75 markets worldwide. For more information about Cresa Boston, visit https://www.cresa.com/boston.
About Margulies Perruzzi Architects
Consistently ranked as one of New England’s top architectural and interior design firms, Margulies Perruzzi Architects (MPA) designs Workplace, Health+Science, and Real Estate projects that inspire creativity, attract and retain talent, and enhance mission engagement. More information may be found at www.mp-architects.com.
Media Contact:
Susan Shelby, FSMPS, CPSM
Rhino PR for Cresa Boston
cresaboston@rhinopr.com
978.985.4541
Originally published in High-Profile Monthly. By Dan Perruzzi, AIA, LEED AP, principal and senior partner at Margulies Perruzzi Architects
October 24, 2017 – As the workplace continues to evolve, law firms are also changing rapidly in response to internal pressures and external market forces. Technology, generational change, and new business pressures are just a few of the demands that are creating new trends in law office design. To keep up, law firms are becoming more focused on how the quality of the workplace can reinforce firm culture and help attract and retain talent – and clients – in an increasingly competitive legal landscape.
While other industries are moving to remote work, lawyers still spend 70 percent of their time in the office. However, new workplace strategies are transforming legal offices across the country. Traditionally large office footprints and private offices, spacious law libraries, and the 1:1 support staff to lawyer ratio are fading to make way for new office environments that support today’s work styles, technological advances, and the need for more efficiency and flexibility.
As law firms face global competition, generational change, and leadership succession, these workplace strategies and trends should be considered when renovating, relocating or designing a legal workplace for the future.
Engaging a Multigenerational Workforce
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Generation Y will account for 50 percent of the workforce by 2020, and Millennials will make up 75 percent of the legal workforce by 2025. Research shows that Millennials value a greater work/life balance than their Baby Boomer or Generation X counterparts. Providing innovative ways to better blend life and work, as well as injecting a “fun factor” into office spaces, can help firms evolve with the changing cultural attitudes and expectations across current and future generations. Varied work settings and common areas, like cafés and lounges with casual seating, are becoming more popular. As demographics change and Millennials move into management, expect to see more flexible layouts with larger collaborative spaces for team-based work, and smaller private spaces for quiet work and confidential meetings.
New Ways of Working
Technology is dramatically changing space allocation in law firms. Large rooms once used for law libraries loaded with books are dwindling as that information becomes digitized. Document scanning, e-signatures, and electronic filing are also shrinking the storage needs for document filing. Wireless connectivity and teleconferencing equipment are becoming standard office features to ensure productivity with virtual legal teams and global clients.
Law firms are increasingly turning to real estate as a strategy to create more efficient law practices and deliver cost-effective legal services. As firms decrease support staff and rely on contract attorneys, law firms are aggressively reducing their office footprint. Single-size offices are becoming more common, and space metrics are changing from the traditional 900 to 1,000 square feet per attorney to 500 to 600 square feet, according to JLL’s “Law Firm Perspective 2016.”
New Attitudes About Space Design
Many law firms are incorporating support space designed for collaboration and team proximity, rather than proximity to partners. The old planning metrics of support staff to partners has dramatically changed, and more legal work is becoming group-based within a firm. The legal workplace is shifting from the traditional office/support/library model to spaces that offer open, collaborative areas for teamwork and social functions. Although attorneys still require private offices for focused, individual work, expect square footage efficiencies to continue. Design features, such as low-walled workstations and glass fronted offices, provide greater transparency and better access to natural light and views, and modular construction is enabling firms to efficiently re-design a space as the organization changes and grows. The legal workplace is being designed with an eye toward increased collaboration, enhanced productivity, and greater employee satisfaction.
Lawyers in succeeding generations tend to value the office as a marketing tool, as well as the place where they spend the majority of their working time. As the legal profession evolves, these workplace trends and strategies will have significant impact on how law firms will operate in the future.
About the author
Dan Perruzzi, AIA, LEED AP, is a principal and senior partner at Margulies Perruzzi Architects. Consistently ranked as one of Boston’s top architectural and interior design firms, Margulies Perruzzi Architects services the corporate, professional services, research and development, real estate, and healthcare communities. For more information, please visit www.mp-architects.com.
Originally published in Banker & Tradesman. By Marc Margulies, FAIA, LEED AP, and Alvaro J. Ribeiro, AIA
October 17, 2017 – Renovating and re-purposing a building can involve several factors: preserving existing features, updating building infrastructure, and energizing spaces for their new use. Warehouses offer their own challenges, especially “legacy” buildings that have long become obsolete. An outdated warehouse in a high-profile location in Quincy, Mass. has been transformed into a new 694,000 SF global customer fulfillment center for Boston Scientific Corporation, a worldwide developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices. Completed in September 2017, this modern, energy-efficient, and state-of-the-art facility expands and modernizes BSC’s logistics and distribution functions and aligns with the company’s Global Facilities Master Plan, an enterprise-wide initiative that brings the company’s real estate and workplace portfolio in line with its global business strategy.
Since 1997, Boston Scientific has located its call center and distribution center operations in the north building of the vast warehouse complex on Quincy’s Squantum Point. Situated on the Neponset River and visible from Interstate 93 on approach to Boston, the new customer fulfillment facility consolidates Boston Scientific operational and distribution functions into the south building on the site. More than half of the company’s global product manufacturing, including medical device products such as life-saving stents, will move through the 24-hour customer fulfillment facility.
Comprising 64,000 SF of office space and a 630,000 SF customer fulfillment center, the building’s office space was designed to meet global workplace strategy standards that Boston Scientific is deploying around the world. The customer fulfillment center includes 2.5 miles of high-efficiency, “smart technology” conveyor and the first installation of an enterprise warehouse management system for Boston Scientific Global Distribution. Boston Scientific selected Margulies Perruzzi Architects (MPA) to design the interior fit-out and building envelope renovations for this sustainably designed building, which is expected to achieve LEED Gold certification for existing buildings. Lee Kennedy Construction is the general contractor for the project.
MPA inherited legacy warehouse conditions that guided the repositioning of the south building and the development of the open office floor plan. Different weight-bearing capacities of the existing floor slab informed the location of major building functions such as the warehouse and its accompanying storage. The large building features a unique, L-shaped footprint, so MPA’s design stretched the office spaces along the building’s edge to distribute natural light to the interior. Different corporate functions occupy each of the L’s wings, maximizing operational efficiency from the unique layout. The existing precast façade was completely replaced with an energy efficient, metal panel rain screen system and new ribbon windows. The corner of the building was removed and updated with a multi-story curtain wall to create a dramatic canopied main entry.
The open office space features a mix of workstations and glass-fronted offices, supported by town squares, breakout cafés, training spaces, and a variety of meeting rooms. To enhance the employee experience in the new building, BSC chose a variety of high-end amenities, including a fitness center, 24/7 grab-and-go food kiosk, and game room. Adjoining the full-service corporate café, the waterfront roof terrace with outdoor casual seating and conference spaces offers stunning views of downtown Boston and provides a compelling amenity for employees.
While MPA’s design transformed an outdated warehouse building into an attractive, energy-efficient, and natural light-filled office and fulfillment facility, this Quincy project significantly advances Boston Scientific facilities and real estate strategy. As worldwide demand for medical devices grows, the expansion and modernization of this global logistics center is an important milestone for the company, the City of Quincy, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
About the authors
Marc Margulies, FAIA, LEED AP, is a principal and senior partner and Alvaro J. Ribeiro, AIA, is a senior architect at Margulies Perruzzi Architects. For more information, please visit www.mp-architects.com.
