Sustainability
This project is certified LEED-Gold.
Margulies Perruzzi provided design services for a 160,000-square-foot office building in Norwood, MA. This class A office building is LEED-Gold certified and provides office space for Hobbs Brook, as well as facilities for a medical office building tenant. Conveniently located on Route 1, the building will help to create a Hobbs Brook campus, allowing employees direct access to training facilities and other amenities in existing company buildings nearby. The building has four floors and includes a cafeteria and fitness center.
The building was designed with a central core that was split in two with a demising wall (half of the core slated for use by the tenant, half by Hobbs Brook); the intent being that it could easily become one core again in the future should the building be converted to single tenancy. There are three distinct main entries to the building, a covered front drop off for patients, a primary entry for Hobbs Brook, and an entry from the back parking lot for the tenant’s employees. In addition, one of the primary exit stairs, shared between Hobbs Brook and the tenant, was located at the front of the building and made it into a dramatic feature stair visible from the exterior.
MP worked closely with the medical office building tenant throughout the process and was able to incorporate unique programmatic elements (such as an MRI dock), seamlessly into the design. A basement was added during the construction documentation process when it was determined that the difference in elevation between level one and the required footing depth meant that it made economic sense to do so.
This new medical office building allows for Sturdy’s orthopedic and physical therapy clinics to consolidate from three different sites while modernizing their facilities and allowing for future expansion on the second floor. The ground floor is slated for the future relocation of outpatient clinics from the hospital. We presented the senior leadership and clinical teams with a variety of planning concepts to consider how to best suit their workflow and needs. Although there was a consensus amongst the groups to utilize a variation of the traditional exam pod concept, there was discussion about the exact configuration. Our team utilized a proprietary BIM tool to map out the flow of patients and staff between all of the space types under different scenarios, helping select a design concept.
With exams and office ringing the perimeter of the building, we sought to create opportunities to allow views and daylighting into the building core. By opening up the corridor ends, there is a great view to the exterior from every major circulation path and daylight is always present, while allowing access to concealed alcoves for carts and med prep stations.
The building’s exterior is designed to be contemporary and exciting while still economical. Opportunities for branding are a major component of the exterior and primary public spaces. The branding for the signature “S” is alluded to in the ceiling design of the interconnecting stair.
Award-Winner
- IFMA Boston Awards
- CoreNet Global New England Awards | Best New Workplace
Home Base, a Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital program, is dedicated to healing the invisible wounds of post-9/11 veterans, service members, and their families through world-class clinical care, wellness, education and research.
A National Center of Excellence, Home Base operates the first and largest private-sector clinic in the nation devoted to healing “invisible wounds,” which can include:
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Traumatic brain injury (TBI)
Anxiety
Depression
Co-occurring substance use disorder
Military sexual trauma
Family relationship challenges
Other issues associated with military service
Margulies Perruzzi worked with Home Base on their new Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinic. The design includes 20 counseling treatment rooms, three large group therapy rooms, two exam rooms, lab space, Family/Patient Lounge, demonstration/teaching kitchen, recording studio, a multi purpose music/art therapy room, a 1,500 SF Fitness Center, and an exterior deck with healing garden.
Professional support space includes conference, huddle, enclosed work setting phone rooms, patient record, copy and storage spaces.
The program is entirely client-focused; there are no private physician offices, and treatment rooms are designed with a comfortable “living room” aesthetic.
The facility, including the fitness center, is fully accessible to accommodate service members with physical disabilities.
Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center is programming and designing a new 25,000 SF clinic that incorporates future flexibility for pandemic response and community access aspects that address social determinants of health.
The pandemic resiliency design begins with site planning ideas from COVID testing sites to allow temporary outdoor space to be used to address the specific needs of future health crises. The mechanical systems are being evaluated to adapt to different situations to be able to isolate areas of the building and increase air changes to clinical spaces to remove airborne contagions. Program changes to allow for triage of visitors at the building entrance and the ability to provide features to accommodate more acute levels of patients in emergency conditions are also influencing the design.
The clinical programs place primary care at the center of the patient experience, while integrating behavioral health, Ob/Gyn, and dental care into a multi-disciplinary approach to wellness. The project expands the social programs available to patients by creating a stigma-free food pantry, an education center to address chronic conditions and a teaching kitchen to provide classes on nutrition and wellness.
