Skanska USA Commercial Development, joined by mayor Martin Walsh and CBT Architects, broke ground on the city's newest office tower, 121 Seaport, a 17-story, 400,000 s/f class-A office building with two floors of retail, in the Seaport District.
Located at the corner of Seaport Blvd. and East Service Rd., 121 Seaport's design is choreographed to promote innovation and collaboration, and increase employee productivity in the workplace. This new sustainable building, which is targeting LEED Platinum certification, will feature a number of amenities and open spaces that will further transform the neighborhood into a 24/7 live, work, play destination.
"It is a top priority for us to design world-class office buildings like 121 Seaport that can attract talented, bright minds that have helped solidify Boston's international reputation as an intellectual, forward-thinking city," said Shawn Hurley, executive vice president for Skanska USA commercial development. "We recognize and have seen first-hand how companies succeed when employees thrive in their work environments. We've designed 121 Seaport to match how people work best in what is fast becoming Boston's most desired neighborhood to live and work in."
"I want to congratulate Skanska and CBT as they break ground on this unique office building on Boston's waterfront," said mayor Walsh. "The development team has clearly put a lot of thought into making 121 Seaport a place where people get excited about going to work. Put that atmosphere together with the building's sustainable features, and you get a truly unique development in one of the fastest growing areas of our city."
At the event, Skanska unveiled 121 Seaport's rendering. The tower's distinctive elliptical design was created to enhance the area's artistic architectural landscape, maximize the skyline viewable from Seaport Sq. Green and reduce solar heat gain.
The highly sustainable building will employ a 40,000-gallon tank rainwater reuse system, reducing its water use by 30%.
The building will also include a highly-efficient chilled-beam mechanical system, which was first pioneered in Boston at Skanska's 101 Seaport. The system circulates water rather than air for building cooling, significantly reducing energy usage.
121 Seaport's floor plates will be virtually column-free, creating more flexible workspaces that offer tenants the ability to customize their space to accommodate business growth over time and meet the specific needs of employees wanting private or open collaborative spaces. Elevated 10-foot ceiling heights coupled with high-performance vision glass will provide plenty of natural daylight deep into the building's office spaces while simultaneously offering views of Boston Harbor and the Financial District.
Additional amenities include outdoor terraces on the third floor rooftops as well as a private, tenant-only fitness center that provides employees the opportunity to conveniently exercise before, during or after work.
"121 Seaport's slender form, crisp and cutting-edge lines, and green values celebrate the innovative spirit of the neighborhood, while delivering a much-desired bold new form in the heart of the Seaport District," said David Nagahiro, principal at CBT Architects in Boston. "This bold new building will energize and engage with our city from street level to the skyline and serve as a catalyst for innovative design in the Seaport and beyond."
The three-story lobby, with its ultra-clear vision glass, will face Seaport Sq. Green and Boston Harbor while the entrance will open to Harbor Way, an expansive 70-foot-wide pedestrian retail promenade with a 15,000 s/f of tree-lined open space at the building's base. The building's location is immediately adjacent to the MBTA's Silver Line and within short walking distance to South Station. It also offers 230 bike parking spaces and 270 underground parking spaces with close proximity to I-93 and I-90.
121 Seaport joins Skanska's two additional Seaport developments - 101 Seaport, a 17-story, 440,000 s/f office tower with 20,000 s/f of ground floor retail which will be home to PwC's new headquarters come October, and Watermark Seaport, a 300,000 s/f residential building with ground floor retail that is currently underway with pre-leasing scheduled to begin this fall. The three towers connect Boston's historic Fort Point neighborhood to its contemporary Seaport District with a specific design and vision which will bring convenient amenities to the neighborhood and exciting activity for the area's residents, workers and visitors to enjoy when completed.
Skanska USA is one of the largest, most financially sound development and construction companies in the U.S., serving a broad range of clients including those in transportation, power, industrial, water/wastewater, healthcare, education, sports, data centers, government, aviation and commercial. Headquartered in New York with offices in 34 metro areas, they have more than 10,000 employees committed to being leaders in safety, project execution, sustainability, ethics and people development. In 2014, their commercial development, infrastructure development (public-private partnerships, building construction and civil and power/industrial construction) generated $7.3 billion in revenue. Global revenue of parent company Skanska AB, headquartered in Stockholm and listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, totaled $21 billion in 2014.