Project category: Addition (completed August 2005)

Chief administrator: James Mandell, MD, President and CEO, (617) 355-6000

Firm: Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott, (617) 423-1700

Design team: William Mead, AIA, ACHA, Principal-in-Charge; Uma Ramanathan, AIA, Programmer and Lead Planner; Arto Kurkjian, Project Architect; Charles Osborne, AIA, Healthcare Designer; Diana Jackson, Interior Designer; Ana Martins, Healthcare Designer

Photography: Richard Mandelkorn

Total building area (sq. ft.): 240,397

Construction cost/sq. ft.: $424

Total construction cost (excluding land): $102,000,000

Located adjacent to the existing hospital, the 240,397-sq.-ft. expansion combines the most sophisticated medical technology—including the world’s first MROR (Magnetic Resonance Operating Room) of its kind—available in a healing environment. The innovative design supports patients and their families while enhancing staff productivity, setting a new benchmark in healthcare design.

The 11-story high-rise includes two new, family-centered cardiac intensive care units: a cardiac ICU and a medical/surgical ICU. Single patient rooms with a large space for family are flexibly designed as either open or closed rooms in a comfortable setting to make patients and their families feel welcome in the ICU. Forty-eight modular acute care units can be transformed into ICUs to accommodate the increasing acuity of patients and allow for future patient increase. Glass-enclosed, satellite nurses’ stations promote patient privacy and operational efficiency to closely monitor patients.


The new surgical suite includes eight, flexibly designed ORs that can serve as general or specialized ORs. The addition also provides expanded interventional radiology services and state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization labs that feature progressive diagnostic and high-tech imaging functions. Two mock-up ICUs and one fully equipped mock-up OR enabled healthcare professionals to fine-tune the design of the units, an opportunity not often available during fast-track design and construction.

The exterior, 11-story, glass and steel, unitized curtainwall allows the insertion of large medical equipment anywhere in the building. Challenges included relocating the street and underground site utilities.