For over 150 years, Boston Children's Hospital (Boston Children's) has been advancing pediatric care worldwide. Home to the world's largest pediatric research enterprise, Boston Children's treats more children with rare diseases and complex conditions than any other hospital. This renowned legacy of care has necessitated the need for Boston Children's to undertake essential expansion and renewal projects to increase its capacity for providing the highest quality care for patients and families.
With real estate in Boston at a premium and the need to accommodate more clinicians within proximity to patients, Boston Children's made the decision to relocate their administrative staff from the hospital’s main campus to their newly renovated 401 Park facility. Administrative staff from other locations around the city were also moved to 401 Park, allowing Boston Children's to consolidate and reduce the number of properties under lease.
Originally opened in 1928 as a Sears Roebuck & Co. Warehouse, the 401 Park building retains much of its original Art Deco architectural features, including grand concrete columns which punctuate its interior. Interesting artifacts from its past are scattered throughout to remind visitors of the site’s vibrant history. The Boston Children's renovation was completed in 2022 and occupies three floors of the historic building that now serves as a multi-tenant retail and office space. Flexible open workspaces, private offices, huddle rooms, and conferencing areas were created to allow Boston Children's workers to better collaborate in one central location.
“401 Park is more than a half mile outside of our main campus. So we faced some resistance in the beginning because our administrative staff really didn’t want to relocate,” said Meg Trueb, Facilities Planner for Boston Children's. “Because our ultimate goal was to densify this new space and strategically collapse our costly leases, it was essential for us to create a flexible work environment that would attract and draw our people in.”
And the 300,000 square foot facility does just that. Working together with Allsteel and their dealer partner W.B. Mason, Boston Children's purposefully increased the opportunities for social interaction among staff within the floorplan design and incorporated furniture and other features that promoted well-being within the space. Height adjustable tables that encourage healthy movement and postural change throughout the day were integrated within “right-sized” workspaces designed to support densification.
“Knowing that these staff members were getting smaller individual workspaces at this new location, we really wanted to invest in giving them a healthier space,” said Trueb. “Considering that people working in administrative roles usually sit at their desk for long periods, we went with sit-to-stand tables to facilitate more movement during the day.”
Tech-enabled collaborative spaces and huddle areas were also dispersed throughout, enabling workers to move around to meet with others outside their departments. Strategically located common areas enable valuable unplanned collaborative collisions and social interactions that were not easily accommodated before.
401 Park also addresses well-being and equity among staff by bringing natural light to every corner of the space. By using Beyond demountable glass walls, Boston Children's was able to divide space into functional areas while still offering a sense of openness and brightness.
“There had been private offices all along the perimeter of the floors we were going to occupy. Because we wanted everyone to have access to natural light, we demolished those and brought all the offices inbound. Using the Beyond glass walls, the natural light now carries through from one side of the building to the other. This set us up for success because it makes the space so much more welcoming,” said Trueb.
The evolution of the historic warehouse space into a highly functional and inviting office environment came with its own unique challenges. The original floors had a steep pitch, resulting in a nine-inch variance that proved troublesome to accommodate.
“Having this kind of variation made it difficult to compensate for when installing the demountable walls,” said Trueb. “But I have to commend the W.B. Mason team for helping us with the precise site measurements and complicated installation. They really did an amazing job.”
Along with using the demountable walls that are reconfigurable to support evolving needs, Boston Children's ensured flexibility within the facility by incorporating mobile training tables in their collaborative spaces that could be easily moved around or rearranged by users to accommodate any kind of meeting.
“The fact that we can have these spaces do just about anything has been key. We're now seeing that our approach to collaboration and flexibility at 401 Park has become an inspiration for our other Boston Children's spaces.”
Project Details
3 Floors
300,000 sq. ft.
Location:
Boston, MA
Partnerships:
W.B. Mason
Paradigm
Elkus Manfredi Architects
Product Solutions
Seating:
Lyric™, Evo™, Relate®, Co|Ho Work Lounge
Panels:
Stride®
Tables:
Structure™, Altitude®
Storage:
Essentials™
Architectural Products:
Beyond®