Came across an amazingly detailed project document for the redevelopment of 185 Franklin St.*
If anyone wants to know anything about what was proposed and I presume mostly already implemented -- check out the following:
185 Franklin Street
Project Address 185 Franklin Street
Links (big files) Project Notification Form*
Neighborhood Downtown
Uses Retail
Office
Land Sq. Ft. 76,692 sq ft
Building Size 883,700 sq ft
Applicant 185 Franklin Street Investment LLC
Project Description The proposed project includes expanding and renovating the lobby, converting office space to retail space, converting the existing basement into a parking garage, façade and roof structure work, related utility work, and sidewalk improvements.
Tishman apparently did all the serious interior work which essentially created two buildings within one skin:
Verizon*retains a substantial telecom presence at 185 Franklin including adding additional back-up generation and cooling on the roof top -- they needed to strengthen the roof to support the new loads
"Boston, MA, February, 2011 – Tishman Construction Corporation of Massachusetts (TCC-MA) is nearing the completion of a project that will provide*Verizon*Communications, Inc. with its own dedicated systems infrastructure for network communications equipment within the historic, 18-story New England Telephone & Telegraph Building at 185 Franklin Street in Boston’s financial district......Tishman Construction personnel are separating*Verizon*Communications’ mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems from those that serve the overall building, in order to give*Verizon*its own dedicated systems on floors that house its office spaces and its network communication equipment.......Another challenge is working over live telecom space. This meant that Tishman project managers had to coordinate the protection of*Verizon*switchgear and large telephone switchgear batteries. To accommodate these procedures, Tishman built scaffolding out of wood (instead of metal scaffolding, which could arc with the batteries) over the entire work area.....The project’s scope of work also includes the installation of two 1-megawatt generators on the roof, a 350-ton cooling tower, seven new air-handling units, and vast amounts of infrastructure to support the new systems. The roof had to be reinforced in order to support the additional weight.
Other work in the building includes:
• Interior building alterations on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors, and the 14th floor roof to build out HVAC and electrical infrastructure to provide ownership separation to isolate*Verizon*space from the rest of the building.
• New air-handling units on floors 1, 2, 3 and 4 and an associated ductwork distribution system, and DDC controls to serve existing and future*Verizon*equipment, with ventilation for battery areas.
• New fuel pumps in the basement with supply and return piping to the 14th floor generator modules.
Simultaneously, Tishman renovated more than 200,000 square feet of office and administrative space on four floors of the building, where*Verizon*maintains its base of operations in the Boston area."
http://www.tishmanconstruction.com/?q=print/1128
The rest of the building being renovated inside and out by Suffolk -- will become generic office -- although I wouldn't doubt that many likely client for the space might want to take advantage of the incredibly dense fiber net (and underground channels for more fiber conduits) already in place in the building
