Boston, MA – Ground has been broken and construction has begun at 57 Binney Street in the Longwood medical area for Children’s Hospital’s main building addition. McNamara/Salvia Inc. was the structural engineer of record on the project that presented challenging space constraints.
With only 7,000sf of available footprint, Payette Architects have designed a building that includes 110,000sf of new clinical space on 10 stories.
The upper floors are expanded beyond the footprint through a structural steel frame that cantilevers over 60 feet.
McNamara/Salvia Inc. has designed a series of trusses and frames that allows the new structure to align and connect with the existing main building patient floors without disrupting service in the procedural rooms below.
The cantilever allows the creation of space above the existing MRI suite, which is unable to be operationally disturbed during construction. The addition appears to “nest” into the available air rights, allowing up to 11,000sf per floor and the space for a rooftop courtyard viewed from both the new and existing buildings.
The addition also features two floors below grade, a basement water tank for supplemental fire suppression, and a ramp for ambulances to access the emergency department. The structure is designed to support and meet the strict vibration limits of up to three MRI units.
The contractor for the project is Walsh Brothers.