Best Practice: Large Project (>150,000 s/f)

Brown Brothers Harriman
Nominated by: Dyer Brown Architects
City: Boston, MA
Brown Brothers Harriman collaborated with their construction and design partners to transform 410,000 SF of a landmark Art Deco building into a bold and inviting office for their 2,100 Boston employees. This project transformed BBH's work environment from a collection of disconnected business units to a unified office space. Under an aggressive 10-month construction timeframe, the project team flawlessly executed an open office layout with an impressive two double-height atria. BBH's emphasis on shared workspace enables a strong sense of community. Collaboration is fostered through multiple conference spaces, huddle rooms and phone rooms, all equipped with state of the technological infrastructure. The design and construction of Brown Brothers Harriman's new flagship space required an unswerving commitment to the project's drivers, goals and opportunities. For the first time in more than 30 years, all BBH teams sit under one roof in a location to reflect their reputation as the nation's oldest private financial institution.

Liberty Mutual Insurance
Nominated by: Dyer Brown Architects
City: Boston, MA
Liberty Mutual Insurance's iconic 648,000 s/f 28-level tower anchors a corporate campus which can accommodate up to 5,000 seats in the heart on Boston's Back Bay. Liberty Mutual and their construction and design teams crafted a building that reinterprets Boston's architectural traditions by combining refined details, locally-sourced materials, and innovative construction techniques. The campus includes commercial office space, three levels of below-grade parking, an expansive and welcoming employee café, a public café, an architecturally transparent and pleasing pedestrian bridge, and streetscape improvements, including a public park and art installation. To achieve a balance of transparency and privacy, Liberty Mutual transitioned from typical office build outs to an interchangeable office module. In addition to implementing a comprehensive change management strategy with a dedicated website to track the progress of the tower, the building is designed to be approximately 29 percent more energy efficient than a typical large modern office building. This project offers lessons on how to create a unified corporate campus in a dense urban environment and expresses Liberty Mutual Insurance's company values of stability, responsibility, and integrity.

State Street Corporation, Channel Center
Nominated by: IA Interior Architects
City: Boston, MA
State Street Corporation (SSC) prepared for four out of eight lease expirations by redesigning their real estate strategy and creating a "Workplace of the Future." State Street's objective to reduce densities, amenities, efficiencies and organizational costs lead them to Channel Center. By consolidating 4 buildings into one 11-story location, 3,466 State Street employees were introduced to a refreshing new workplace with intuitive technology concepts, centralized support, comfortable meditation/wellness rooms, and a 24/7 multi-functional cafeteria. In an effort to reinvent State Street's image from a traditional financial institution to innovative technology company, the site location and design concepts were all based on those from technology companies instead of Boston finance. The design of Channel Center has been established as State Street Corporation's "Workplace of the Future" and will be rolled out as their new real estate strategy.

Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
Nominated by: Boston Art
City: Charlestown, MA
As part of Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital's transition to a new, leading-edge facility in Charlestown, Massachusetts, consultants at Boston Art developed a comprehensive program that showcases the striking architecture of the new building. The Boston Art team worked with Spaulding to develop a program composed of both high-impact and traditional works that would provide inspiration and energy in a facility where patients typically spend several weeks or more in rehab programs. A spirit of resiliency and tenacity was supported by including works that were created by people with disabilities- one work was created by a blind artist, and another by an artist who paints with the wheels of his wheel chair. One of the most challenging and rewarding components of the project was the Tidal Stream sculptural installation, consisting of seventeen bronze animals and groupings of creatures to adorn the two public gardens. The integration of artwork into both an outdoor rehabilitation space and a public walkway ultimately linked the therapeutic experience of the patients to the environmental history of Charlestown. In addition to enhancing community member engagement with an important neighborhood institution, the project supports SRH's motto, "Find Your Strength".

Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Nominated by: Diversified Project Management
City: Boston, MA
Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a global biotechnology company, signed the largest lease ever signed in the history of Boston for 1.1 million s/f of 14 floors in two connected buildings. As Vertex embarked on its much anticipated relocation of 1,300 employees from nearly a dozen different buildings in Cambridge, the need for greater collaboration became one of the major goals of the new headquarters. The vision of the new campus was to cultivate Vertex's future and to simulate innovation, collaboration and the discovery of new medicines. The development and utilization of Vertex's internal Employee Engagement Team helped design the campus for the needs of employees based on information collected through interactive visits to Pixar, Google, and other innovative workplaces. The barrier-free campus encourages free-flowing communication and fully supports the work and culture of Vertex. By giving amenity spaces to everyone, employees are exposed to the functions of other staff, creating a greater understanding of the full company. Many staff members, including scientists, are now able to have more regular interaction when located within the same walking campus. Until the recent relocation to Boston, never in the company's 25-year history had all of its employees been located within one campus. Vertex Pharmaceuticals' campus at Fan Pier is a symbol of innovation, success and productivity.

Biogen
Nominated by: NELSON
City: Cambridge, MA
Biogen embarked on an uncharted change management process to relocate to a new facility in Weston, Massachusetts. The process incorporated a bottom up/top down employee driven process that transformed Biogen's work environment. Faced with the daunting task of bringing five new drugs to market simultaneously, Biogen abandoned their 20 year old conventional office standard for a new model with a cross-functional and open-plan. The 190,000 s/f project was the first phase of a two-building 507,000 s/f expansions, which included a two-floor pedestrian link between an adjacent building and the new building. The design responds directly to Biogen employees' suggestions for their new work environment, such as 20' X 20' "cloud areas" defined by soffits that are pre-engineered for rapid construction/reconfiguration of additional huddle rooms or project rooms. Also, Biogen made a strong commitment to sustainable design by investing in a combined heat and power plant (CHP) that produces both electricity and thermal energy simultaneously. Overall, the project has been received as an amazing success. Employee satisfaction is at the highest levels of the scale, as over 92% of their staff approve.


Best Practice: Medium Project (50,000- 150,000 s/f)

Iron Mountain
Nominated by: Margulies Perruzzi Architects
City: Boston, MA
When Iron Mountain, a worldwide provider of information storage and management solutions, relocated its global headquarters to One Federal St., they sought a collaborative, state of the art office environment to support its increasingly mobile workforce and address inefficiencies created in its former 745 Atlantic Ave. workspace. Prior to the move, Iron Mountain decided to adopt a high performance workspace strategy and launch a formal mobile workforce program called "Mobile Moutaineering". With the implementation of a formal remote-work program, Iron Mountain eliminated some of their real estate needs and realized savings in less leased space.

Google
Nominated by: NELSON
City: Cambridge, MA
Google assembled a project team for the relocation of 500 employees to Four Cambridge Center of floors 3-5, consisting of 81,235 s/f. The combination of business group history and function, multiple visioning sessions with representatives of the facilities and end user groups determined that this building would be the "Blue Line Building" and would mimic an actual stop on the MBTA Blue Line subway system. Design features included a light house, boat deck, a room designed to mimic an airplane fuselage, a living aquarium and other specialty environments. In addition to ensuring that every aspect of the built environment is an integrated part of the design, Google has significant sustainability goals. For example, Google mandates a minimum LEED-CI Gold Certification and strict air quality and energy goals are required in every project. All team members were critical to this project- indicative of an incredibly variable and highly flexible built environment.

Compuware
Nominated by: CBT Architects
City: Waltham, MA
Compuware and their design partners recently merged three separate offices into one unique 70,000 s/f space. Compuware chose to relocate offices after recognizing that a fresh, new flexible space would allow the company to respond and adapt to the quickly evolving nature of the tech industry.. A challenge for the project team was finding a way to unite the company across one contiguous 70,000 s/f floor plate, while allowing for flexibility within each group. The design solution includes a continuous circulation path connecting each color coded quadrant. Consistent elements of signage, color coded way finding, and inspirational action words relevant to each team defines each quadrant's function and allows employees to quickly orient themselves. By identifying the potential re-use of the existing server room and training room, it saved Compuware a significant portion of time on the project's schedule and supported the project's completion under budget.

Log Me In, Inc.
Nominated by: Spagnolo Gisness & Associates
City: Boston, MA
LogMeIn, a rapidly growing and inventive technology company, designs products that allow customers to remotely access their computers, networks and mobile devices from anywhere around the globe. Located in a former textile mill, this 8 floor "brick and beam" headquarters provides an intimate venue for work and play. All floors feature 100% open plans with access to natural light and offers customizable sit-stand workstations to support any working style. To further LMI's brand concepts of 'inside versus outside' and remote accessibility, nature was brought into the space with cloud-like lighting features and a tree-house themed mezzanine. These places of refuge keep employees connected to nature to help elevate moods, reduce stress and increase productivity. The project team worked with the Historical Landmarks Commission to integrate a fully landscaped outdoor roof deck, while also integrating custom signage and environmental graphics to encourage circulation and increased communication. This project resulted in a space that works for innovation and is a model for restoration in a historical Boston district.

Homesite Insurance
Nominated by: Big Bark Solutions
City: Boston, MA
Homesite Insurance provides direct-to-consumer homeowners, renters and condominium insurance, via internet, call centers and technology-enabled platforms. Homesite Insurance's business relies on cost competitiveness and technological innovation for a competitive edge in their market. Therefore, they recognized the need to work differently, reduce their RSF per person, and function more collaboratively than their existing space allowed. After the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Homesite leadership was sensitive to the project's price and perception of extravagance. The architects developed a flexible open office concept that provides a high level of amenity in public common spaces, optimizes individual workstation efficiency, and facilitates connection and collaboration. The design team was assembled in large part due to networking connections made through IFMA Boston. This demonstrates the value of these connections far beyond Chapter activities, into the workplace. Homesite's strategically simple design conserved the limited budget for high-impact details that can be enjoyed by the population at large.

Coverys
Nominated by: Diversified Project Management
City: Boston, MA
Coverys, one of the top 10 medical professional liability insurance providers in the country, relocated its headquarters to the 12th and 13th floors at One Financial Center in Boston. Coverys' CEO had a vision to bring the company's facilities up to a new corporate standard. This vision inspired a full refresh of their office facilities to support the company's new brand and encouraged a new, open and collaborative workplace within the home office and satellite locations throughout the country. The inclusiveness of Coverys change management plan helped achieve the more open and collaborative space, mitigated the risk of staff attrition and reflects a happy and productive end user population. A large planning challenge was the move to an open office environment and shifting almost 30% of seats to mobile workforce benching. The new space is a complete transformation of Coverys' corporate image and now serves as an example for satellite locations throughout the company. A result of stellar team planning, smart design, and collaborative approach to implementation, the space epitomizes a modern office environment that has already proven to attract star employees and maintain a high rate of employee retention for years to come.

North Bennet Street School
Nominated by: Fox RPM Corp.
City: Boston, MA
North Bennet School, founded in 1881, made a significant decision to sell the school's historic 47,000 s/f home at 39 North Bennet St. to the city of Boston and purchase a larger facility from the city. The new site, former Area A police station and city printing plant, allows the entire school to gather, enhancing the educational experience for students and strengthening the school's sense of community. The completed school offers renewed programs teaching the arts of furniture making, carpentry, lock-smithing, bookbinding, and jewelry making and repair to more than 160 students. Project challenges included ensuring that the school remained fully operational throughout the transition, moving oversized equipment, and complying with the city of Boston's Green Building Initiative and Standards for Historic Rehabilitation. The new facility provides code-compliant and an energy efficient space for the school's training programs, the ability to expand public programs, and increased visibility in the city.

Industrial Facilities Design, Inc
Nominated by: Allegro Interior Architecture
City: Billerica, MA
The new E Ink Innovation Center in Billerica, MA is a state-of-the-art research facility, custom built to meet the company's current advancement requirements. E Ink is known worldwide for innovations in the field of display technology, including electronic paper display (EPD) for over 90% of the global eReader market. The site for the Center, initially a pair of existing buildings, was modified to a single facility with a total square footage of approximately 140,000. Without this new facility, E Ink simply could not develop the new technical products needed for their partnering companies. By combining the functions of R&D with corporate workspace function, labs have immediate proximity to the scientists they serve. In order to manage timely changes in the labs during the design process, all parties committed to a less formal, more collaborative means of sharing electronic data, utilizing Building Information Modeling (BIM) and direct communications with E Ink lab managers. The new Innovation Center ensures the company's US commitment, housing more than half of the 320 employees in MA currently, with a growth planned for up to 400 works in the future.


Best Practice: Small Project (<50,000 s/f)

Btmu Capital Corporation
Nominated by: Fox RPM Corp.
City: Boston, MA
BTMU Capital has resided at 111 Huntington Ave. since the building's inception more than 10 years ago. With BTMU's lease signed through 2020, and their space requirements contracting, BTMU was faced with a challenge - break the existing lease and pay the price, or work with the landlord to find a happy medium that would work for both parties. BTMU chose the latter, agreeing to a move from the 4th floor to the 6th floor, and thus saving BTMU millions throughout the term of their lease. A few project challenges included having to work during off hours due to the noise-sensitive tenant below BTMU and working within an extremely tight schedule with a late release. Communications were vital to the project's success as regular meetings were held to discuss progress, from design to construction. The project was completed 20% under budget.

Avery Dennison Retail Branding And Information Solutions (Rbis)
Nominated by: Creative Office Pavilion
City: Westborough, MA
The new modern 20,000 s/f Avery Dennison RBIS global headquarters in Framingham was designed to model the company's cutting-edge initiatives and built to reflect the innovative, creative, and forward-thinking principles that the company is striving to achieve. RBIS provides creative and innovative solutions that accelerate brand and retail performance both in the U.S. throughout 115 locations and globally across 50 countries. A $1.5 billion division of Avery Dennison, RBIS shares the corporation's vision to "make every brand more inspiring and make the world more intelligent." The challenge presented by the move was to create a workplace that would foster innovation, creativity, and collaboration while also providing a seamless transition for employees. Because RBIS serves a global marketplace in 50 different countries, it supports a constantly moving global workforce. Ultimately, the team successfully created a space that integrates both collaboration and innovation.

Cushman & Wakefield
Nominated by: Haworth
City: Boston, MA
Cushman Wakefield's mission is to be the world's preferred real estate firm, providing the most creative and innovative services on a consistent basis, driving meaningful value to their clients and to be the best at what they do. To keep with that vision and "lead by example" they transformed their Boston office, occupying 35,000 s/f on the third floor at 225 Franklin St., into a LEED certified, full fit-out renovation renovation. Depending on what the meeting/gathering needs of the company's employees are, they now have a number of options to choose from within their workspace. Many unique design finishes were used throughout the different spaces in the office.These extensive details and finishing touches were made possible through working closely with the general contractor, LEED consultant, lighting consultant, furniture vendor and the AV company.

Akamai Technologies
Nominated by: Haworth
City: Cambridge, MA
Akamai Technologies is the leading provider of cloud services for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere. Akamai's tag line is "Faster Forward." That's what they envisioned in the design of their 47,000 s/f "fit-up" in Cambridge. The primary project objectives for were four-fold: 1.) New workplace guidelines required smaller more efficient footprints and increased flexibility to accommodate this rapidly changing technology company 2.) Foster greater collaboration among the users. 3.) Integrate the company's brand throughout the space, and 4.) Work with a set project budget that is equal to or less than other similar Akamai projects in the area. The finished project includes the company's brand and history beginning in the lobby and traveling along the core walls throughout the entire space. The overall project was delivered within the same approximate cost per square foot as other Akamai projects.

Schoolworld Academy
Nominated by: Sakonnet Associates
City: Nashua, NH
Originally founded in 1980 as the Small World Learning Center, SchoolWorld Academy opened with 38 students, aged 3 to 5 years old. Within fifteen years, its program had grown dramatically and the school relocated to its present site into a new, 20,000 s/f building with summer camp facilities. In 2010, with increased demand on its elementary and middle school programs, World Academy set out to plan a state-of-the art addition, that would nearly double the size of its building, transform the visual character of the school, and reorganize and expand site circulation and outdoor amenities. Project structures included a two story 16,000 s/f Middle School Addition with a 9,000 s/f Gymnasium/ Theatre Arts Building with climbing wall and music center, and 3,000 s/f Connector Lobby. World Academy's addition has proven transformative to enrollment and to the energy of staff and families. The new building conveys its purpose and promotes dynamic 21st Century learning and socialization.

Zipcar
Nominated by: Margulies Perruzzi Architects
City: Boston, MA
Zipcar Inc. has parked its new global headquarters in 46,000 s/f of newly designed interior space in Boston's thriving Innovation District. Having outgrown its previous space, Zipcar sought a more efficient and organized office environment that would foster a greater sense of community within its new headquarters. Designed as a high performance workspace to support the dynamic growth of the company, the project includes a new lobby with views directly into the company gathering area and living room; conference and training space; individual and collaborative work areas; and dining areas. The new headquarters offers an open and productive floor plan for collaborative work, while embracing sustainability for a healthy working environment. The project teams all had, and surmounted four main challenges; 1.) The desire to create a Zipcar "community" 2.) Clever use of existing space 3.) Flexibility in the floor plan to allow for more collaborative work and 4.) Sustainability for a healthy working environment. According to ZipCar creative director, Brendan Stephens, "We are proud to call this award-winning office our home."






Best Practice: Sustainability

Google
Nominated by: NELSON
City: Cambridge, MA
Google has transformed its new Kendall Square Cambridge campus, occupying 13 floors in three buildings, into a sustainability haven. The project is a new urban campus being built in multiple phases, and is a full gut renovation of space formerly occupied by other tenants. The design is an original concept based on Boston subway stops and the landmark buildings and spaces along the way. All phases of the project were designed to meet LEED-CI v09 Gold certification or better, and one phase was awarded LEED-CI Platinum certification, earning 89 points. All phases also have aggressive targets to reduce energy consumption associated with lighting and include a high level of sub-metering to better understand energy consumption at end use. The projects participate in the Health Materials program, an in-house program to foster use of materials that will reduce exposure risk for installers and occupants. Both specialty furniture and a wall mosaic were designed by Mass-based artists and employee photography was turned into murals. Employees also participated in creating wall art by collecting candy wrappers. This project more than doubles the density requirements of the LEED Development Density credit. By selecting existing buildings Google reduced resource consumption, waste and land impacts.

Brigham and Women's Hospital
Nominated by: Environmental Health & Engineering, Inc.
City: Boston, MA
Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is among the leaders in the healthcare industry and is routinely ranked as one of the "Top 10" hospitals in the U.S. Their buildings are designed, constructed and maintained to ensure that the advanced life saving medical care they employ on a daily basis can be effectively delivered. This means, in many cases, going beyond minimum regulatory and voluntary requirements for fire and life safety compliance. BWH leadership wanted to develop a system that would permit proactive identification and resolution of fire and life safety deficiencies during construction and implement a "continuous compliance" program throughout the life of the buildings. BWH's forward thinking efforts in advancing the state of construction and maintenance of healthcare and high-rise facilities and to promote this new initiative in ensuring safer buildings is why they are up for this award. Based upon the feedback of multiple general contractors, trade vendors, and regulatory officials representing the City of Boston, this program is recognized for advancing structural life safety, over other projects in the City. This program serves as a new benchmark for construction of healthcare and high-rise facilities in the City of Boston and acts a model of best practice for the professionals in the real estate sector, specifically, in the design, construction and maintenance industry.

Biogen
Nominated by: NELSON
City: Cambridge, MA
In 2010, Biogen Idec decided to move headquarters from their facility in Weston back to Cambridge where they had left in 2008. At the time, the new management was faced with the daunting task of bringing five new drugs to market simultaneously, a task that is unprecedented in their industry. That led to the decision to shake things up by abandoning their 20 year old conventional office standard for a new model that is cross-functional, totally open plan and more supportive of teaming and collaboration. The 190,000 s/f project was the first phase of a two-building 507,000 s/f expansion, which included a new connector building as a two-floor pedestrian link between an adjacent building and the new building. An innovative approach to programming the space was presented to the end users early on. The end product has been received as an amazing success. Employee satisfaction is at the highest levels of the scale - over 92% of their staff approve. The CEO and the EVP's are enthusiastic occupants of this dynamic open plan environment. Biogen continues to monitor the feedback, and plans to make minor adjustments as the standards are rolled out in future projects.