When Boston Scientific decided to transform this underutilized and dated building overlooking the Neponset River in Quincy, they engaged MP to transform it into a state-of-the-art shipping and distribution center. The facility is complete with office and conference spaces, a full suite of corporate amenities, including a fitness center, full-service corporate café, and an expansive roof deck overlooking the river and with stunning views to downtown Boston. The dated building exterior was replaced with sleek, energy-efficient metal panel and ribbon window.
The distribution center has been carefully configured to support their specific lines and processes. The center, which operates 24 hours a day, connects the leading medical device manufacturer to their clients worldwide.
“As worldwide demand for medical devices grows, the expansion and modernization of our global logistics center is an important milestone,” said Paul Donhauser, vice president of global real estate, facilities operations, and environment, health, and safety at Boston Scientific. “This modern and energy-efficient building is part of a multi-phased approach to bring our global facilities in line with the company’s evolution and business goals. Since collaborating on the design and workplace strategy of our new global headquarters in Marlborough, MP has been a vital partner in evaluating real estate choices and advising our global real estate and facilities team.”
Award-Winner
Corenet New England Awards of Excellence | New Building Project of the Year
Ken’s Foods is the well-known manufacturer of “wet-spices”. Margulies Perruzzi has designed a variety of projects for their Marlborough headquarters. The first was a 20,000 square foot addition containing a new main entry for the facility, demonstration kitchens, marketing areas, and administrative office space. In addition to the new structure, an additional 20,000 square feet of existing office space was renovated to integrate the existing space seamlessly with the new construction.
Margulies Perruzzi has also designed an automated warehouse, featuring a custom-designed racking and stocking system.
Bayer Healthcare (now Siemens) moved its blood-gas analyzing R&D division into a new building to aggregate its disbursed operations into one new facility. Complete with labs, workspace, training, and a customer briefing center, this building was an important part of the company’s focus on the design of innovative testing equipment.
As with many labs, a key component was the creation of a centralized services corridor that housed common gasses, a tank farm, ROD distribution, and electrical distribution. This core area reduced redundancy of equipment, increased flexibility over time, and allowed efficient service and maintenance of critical infrastructure.
MP provided design services for a pharmaceutical client who occupies space in Cambridge, MA. MP completed the space programming of their 115,000 SF of offices and assisted in decommissioning the existing lab spaces on the third floor. The client wanted the open office areas to feel like small neighborhoods and more natural light into these areas. MP designed smaller open office areas along the windows and incorporated more collaborative spaces throughout. The collaborative spaces include different sizes of conference rooms, huddle rooms, and quiet rooms.
MP collaborated with Columbia Construction for a multi-phase design & construction process. Phase 1 which included the third floor was completed in December 2020. Phases 2 & 3 are to be completed by 2023.
Like many companies, healthcare products manufacturer Covidien had grown into their Mansfield campus over time. Covidien asked Margulies Perruzzi to develop a master plan for the campus that would not only expand operations but provide for a more streamlined organization across units. The master plan considered possible organizational configurations, assessed cost and schedule implications, and considered disruption to operations and staff with the goal of developing a high-quality office environment combined with research and development facilities.
Margulies Perruzzi designed the centerpiece of the new campus, a 160,000 square foot headquarters building that includes the main reception area and customer briefing center, a corporate cafeteria, and a variety of office areas.
Margulies Perruzzi also designed lab space for biosciences, dialysis, sharp safety, technical services, urology, vascular therapy, wound care, clinical affairs, medical affairs, chemistry, and technical documentation on the Mansfield Campus.
Metabolix is a developer of biopolymer technology, essentially creating plant-based plastics that will biodegrade. Margulies Perruzzi has worked with Metabolix on multiple projects. Interior renovations were completed for their office space in Lowell, and for their headquarters at 21 Eerie Street in Cambridge, which included significant branding. Margulies Perruzzi also completed space planning for their biotech plant, and research lab at One Kendall Square in Cambridge.
The use of a flexible laboratory paradigm was critical to the success of these planning efforts. Because the technology is emerging, rapid change to both processes and equipment is essential. Margulies Perruzzi achieved this by designing around flexible connections and modular equipment units.
Margulies Perruzzi provided architectural interior design services for this lab and office tenant fit out project. Strand Therapeutics, an emerging biopharmaceutical company, moved into the first and second floors of 20 Overland Street in the Boston Fenway neighborhood. The 64,000 SF space includes a 60/40 lab/office split. A connection between lab and office is supported by glass walls, allowing a clear visual into the lab from the office, and vice versa.
The open work environment is supported by a variety of meeting room types, phone booths, and work cafe spaces, allowing employees the option to choose the workspace that best supports their needs.
Upon deciding to relocate from Connecticut to the Boston area, FujiFilm’s Medical Division wanted to also create an exciting new “Customer Briefing Center” and technical training facility for its medical imaging systems. Complete with functional X-ray and MRI machinery and demonstration rooms, the intent was to capitalize on the Massachusetts environment of innovation and investment.
Additionally, MP designed a new “innovation center” as a convening space to be part of the scientific community’s ecosystem. Both spaces employed advanced AV systems, bold branding, and highly sophisticated imaging equipment in addition to attractive and functional training and workspaces.
Images by Andy Caulfield
As a part of the renovation and expansion of Boston Scientific’s Global Headquarters, the Urology division’s R&D labs and office space underwent a complete transformation. Consolidating multiple labs that over time had become scattered throughout the building, the new state-of-the art labs are flexible, efficient, and adjacent to the researcher’s workspaces. Transparency into the labs facilitates monitoring and interaction between personnel while also allowing natural light to brighten spaces that had previously felt cut off from the exterior.
An important tenet of the design was the flexible infrastructure. Universal lighting, access to power and gasses, and mobile benches allow researchers to quickly and easily reconfigure as needed. This more “agile” approach to R&D increases innovation and productivity by removing the barriers fixed layouts may present, and by facilitating the sharing of expensive equipment to reduce duplication.
When industry leader Azenta Life Sciences decided to move their existing laboratory from Cambridge, MA to Waltham, MA, they sought out MP to facilitate the design of their relocated lab and administrative and support spaces.
The lab program consists of genetic analysis, sequencer, synthesizer, plasmid prep, oligo synthesis, and support spaces. MP, in conjunction with their team of engineers, tackled the task of providing innovative electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and structural solutions to support the client’s complex equipment in the new location. Infrastructure enhancements included the addition of new air handling units, exhaust fans, chemical waste treatment, and an emergency generator.
MP helped the client to visually connect the lab spaces to the adjacent office spaces using their branded color palette. The visual connection between open lab and support lab spaces as well as between open office, meeting, and working spaces is facilitated by the use of a glazed storefront system. This design concept allows the client to provide their employees with an innovative and interactive workspace as well as a space for respite.
