Brigham Building for the Future | LMA | Fenway

Did someone snap an imaginary chalk line across the sky in Longwood so that all buildings would be the same height?

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Czervik.Construction said:
Did someone snap an imaginary chalk line across the sky in Longwood so that all buildings would be the same height?

4.30.13-BWH-351x300.jpg
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That's pretty much the (practical) height cap for medical and lab buildings. When you go any higher, it just gets ridiculous as far as MEP goes. You can't put anything on top of the lab portion either because then you need separate lobbies and elevators and thus you're sacrificing even more floorspace.
 
You have a great point. MEP can be giant hassle even for a one story lab floor with varying air handling needs.
 
Would it be feasible for these places to build a different use above their labs? Offices, perhaps even for their own administrative use? Or hotels or residences for employees and patients from far away?
 
Medevac helicopter flight paths have also dictated building heights in LMA.
 
BostonUrbEx said:
Would it be feasible for these places to build a different use above their labs? Offices, perhaps even for their own administrative use? Or hotels or residences for employees and patients from far away?
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As I said in my post, no, not immediately upfront. There was a project we were working on (not in Boston) that originally had that kind of design when proposed (around 10 stories of lab, 10 of office), but the building was quickly slashed down to lab only, due to logistics. The building's construction docs interestingly included space for the extra elevators should the building ever actually get the addition on top though.
 
These hospitals should be required to rebuild and fix the roads around the area. I was driving over in that area the other day and the poor road quality stood out to me.
 
I've read that MIT is having trouble finding a site for its nano lab because of the need to insulate it from electro-magnetic forces in the surrounding environment. Most of the new labs are working at the molecular level, and that strikes me as requiring dedicated buildings (where the building environment is known and controllable), not multi-purpose buildings.
 
To the above. I was working on an optics lab over in Harvard, and the building that was selected to put it in was chosen because it was the deadest spot on campus as far as wi-fi signals went. The Dr. wanted no frequencies that might mess up the experiments.

I would go against the whole height limitations of lab or hospital buildings. Obviously you can accomplish anything (if you set your mind to it), but the mentality would need to change.

You could easily build that 10 storeys of office and 10 storeys of lab building, but to make it easier you might want to put the labs on the top ten floors. That's opposite to how buildings usually go (just look at Vertex.) The office personal and big wigs want the high corner offices, and want the grunts (the real money makers) down in the bowels.

Put the labs on top, and the impacts to the office floor plates almost disappears. All MEP goes on the 11th floor mech. room, and the penthouse. No major shafts for supply and exhaust (there will still be the office ducts, but they'd be much smaller. Hell build 20 floors of office and 5-10 of lab.

Hospitals we have seen grow pretty tall, as the patient room go up high, and don't have the same needs as the OR's, labs, etc.
 
^^^ Almost. I was on the roof of the parking garage next door hanging over the railing. Glad you like.
 
I am having a hard time placing this building. Is this in the wild west of LMA, back behind Brigham and Dana Farber, abutting the parkway?
 
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