Boston, MA Third Rock Ventures, a leading healthcare venture capital firm, has engaged Elkus Manfredi Architects to conceive of and design their new workplace at 201 Brookline Ave. in the Fenway life science district. The 24,000 s/f assignment is the latest in a string of workplace strategy and design commissions for Elkus Manfredi with innovative life science and financial services companies. Occupancy is expected in the fall of 2023.

“Third Rock Ventures is committed to creating a design for a work environment that supports each team member and nurtures a community of professionals who change patient lives,” said Elizabeth Lowrey, principal and director of interior architecture of Elkus Manfredi Architects.

The design directive is a confident indicator of a clear goal: How can Third Rock Ventures welcome and inspire their team to learn, collaborate and innovate in a space that can support the need for creativity, flexibility, inclusivity and functionality?

Elkus Manfredi Architects’ work strategy experts will engage Third Rock Ventures employees at every level. What do you need to make your space a place of productivity and collaboration to build community and accelerate the pace of innovation? How can you be your best professional self? These are the types of questions posed to employees in the co-creation process, wherein employees have a direct impact on the design of the space they will inhabit.

Elkus Manfredi vice president Tara Reilly said, “In co-creation, we take the role of listener and facilitator to engage leadership and cross-functional employees at all levels, using a methodology that brings end users together to brainstorm about making the workplace more efficient, more supportive of their work and a better incubator for creative innovation.”

In the post-pandemic workplace, the office must be a magnet, not a mandate. Numerous elements converge to make the Third Rock Ventures’ space just that. These include its decision to be in one of the new epicenters of life science work–the Fenway, with access both to Back Bay and the Longwood Medical Area.

Furthermore the space will be designed to take its cue from residential and hospitality design–in other words, comfortable and informal, uniquely suited to vibrant collaboration and inducive to spontaneous creative collisions among employees at all levels.