with a desire to attract top talent and foster new discoveries in life sciences,
Innovation Square 3 (ISQ3)
prioritizes the neighborhood’s deep maritime history, extensive waterway, and existing industrial architecture.
Together, SGA and Related Beal have undertaken the transformation of the ISQ3 site in Boston’s Eastern Seaport within the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park. Once the site of the South Boston Naval Annex and South Boston Army Base, as well as the location for shipping, commerce, and drydock activities, the waterfront industrial park was largely underutilized with aging infrastructure. In support of the effort, DREAM Collaborative has teamed with SGA to deliver a new design driven by enhanced interconnectivity with the public realm. ISQ3 leverages civic space as an engaging asset for both the scientific community and the public.
The seven-story state-of-the-art research and development facility is complete with on-site amenities including a café, fitness center, roof deck, conference and event space, and outdoor public seating.
As a build-to-suit for Vertex Pharmaceuticals, design focuses on open, flexible space to ensure opportunity for continued adaptation in pursuit of their mission to, “invest in scientific innovation to create transformative medicines for people with serious diseases with a focus on specialty markets.” Vertex’s success and longstanding commitment to the Seaport is often credited as the catalyst for the neighborhood’s evolution and a point of pride for the City and region.
With a deeply-toned, steel-framed façade pulling from the surrounding industrial expression, the design of the building employs modern glasswork that plays lightly with scale and symmetry to create an inspirational intersection between the neighborhood’s historic context and its future growth.
Drawing direct inspiration from its axial relationship with the existing buildings and landmarks, the development’s distinctive v-shaped plan animates the ground plane and engages pedestrians with an atypical street-level experience. A new courtyard designed by Ground, Inc. and a public first floor, intertwine with the surrounding urban ecosystem to capitalize on the street corner position and create a distinguished gateway to the neighborhood.
The cutting-edge discovery that will take place inside ISQ3 is supported by careful coordination, complex equipment, and new strategies for sustainability and resiliency. The foundation will be raised five feet to gracefully sculpt a protective edge for the development and prevent impacts of climate change. This prominent plateau engages the public and celebrates the equity of open space while creating opportunities for diverse community activation.
Hand-in-hand with resiliency considerations, ISQ3 prioritizes peak sustainability features such as a high-performance envelope design, MEP electrification using heat pump technologies, maximum on-site renewable energy generation via rooftop photovoltaics, and a reduction in embodied carbon through whole building life cycle assessment.
Set to achieve LEED Platinum Certification and LEED Zero Carbon certification, these collaborative resiliency and sustainability efforts improve Vertex’s confidence and comfort in occupancy of this prominent, future-minded property.