Charlestown, MA The transformation of Hood Park from its industrial origins to a business, research, and technology hub continues with another project breaking ground at 100 Hood Park Dr. The new, mixed-use building incorporates 75,000 s/f of laboratory, office, and retail space together with a parking garage that accommodates over 900 vehicles. When opened next summer, 100 Hood Park Dr. will help activate the 20-acre business campus and serve as the foundation for future development planned around the transit-friendly site.

Designed by Cambridge-based design firm SMMA for Hood Park owners Catamount Management, 100 Hood Park Dr. features a large aperture element as the focal point to a new street named Hood Park Dr. The layout knits together the new building, adjacent powerhouse, and expanded open public space to create a campus environment.

Each aspect of the 100 Hood Park Dr. project design ensures an environmentally sustainable and operationally efficient outcome. To improve resiliency, the design raises the entire site three feet in anticipation of rising storm water levels and future potential flooding. The building shell and core will be LEED Certified, and the garage portions of the project will be ParkSmart certified. The 100 Hood Park Dr. development is being managed by Trademark Partners. Lee Kennedy Co, Inc. is the construction manager. It is slated for completion in the summer of 2019. 

The building structure is designed with the flexibility to accommodate a diverse range of tenant uses. By utilizing flat plates, the garage – which places the parking on the top five levels of the building, as opposed to the more typical lower levels–can be converted into additional lab and office space depending on developing tenancy needs. Further expansion is possible as the building structure is also designed to accommodate a future full high-rise structure above the current six-story base. 

“We are setting up Hood Park to become a community of its own as well as extension of the Charlestown neighborhood,” said Mark Spaulding, principal and director of design at SMMA. “100 Hood Park Drive will enable the vision for the future of Hood Park and establish an active retail edge for the new street.”