Flagship Pioneering
Ideally situated near Cambridge and downtown Boston, Flagship Pioneering is a 290,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility offering class a research space to best-in-class biotechnology companies.
Located at Boynton Yards at 101 South Street in Somerville, MA, the first of three planned life sciences buildings was designed by SGA.
The highly efficient building spans nine floors above the building’s ground-level lobby and retail area. Each level includes 35,000 SF of interior floor space designed to maximize flexibility. Prior to its completion, Flagship Pioneering, a leading life sciences venture capital company, leased all available tenant spaces to house a combination of four tenants from its biotechnology portfolio. These included Laronde, Tessera Therapeutics, Cellarity, and Generate Biosciences.
While each tenant’s life sciences focus is relative to Flagship’s more extensive portfolio, their areas of expertise are distinct. As a result, all four tenants required a variety of facilities that served their specific needs.
SGA, who served as the building’s core and shell architect, designed and delivered all interior tenant spaces including laboratory, office, and amenity areas.
Throughout the design process, the overall goal was to create a mixed-use space for each tenant where scientists could come together and collaborate in an open, brand-rich environment — especially in the shared common areas. A distinct brand palette was utilized to emphasize each tenant’s design and workspace needs.
When building out these high-performance spaces, it was critical to maintain proximity between the office (60%) and lab (40%) areas. Implementing a flexible floor plan to accommodate tenants as their businesses grew and new ones moved in was also important. This approach allows Flagship to be strategic with how it chooses to utilize the space in the future as its portfolio continues to evolve.
The use of mobile furniture (e.g., lab benches, workstations) throughout each level further enhanced the versatility of the building and allowed tenants to adapt their office and lab areas as needed. Depending on the type of lab facilities required by each company, the floor designs varied from tenant to tenant.