After 20 years at 150 Federal Street, Boston’s largest law firm decided to seek not only the additional space it needed, but to completely transform its office environment. The new office builds on Bingham’s culture of a strong sense of community, respect, pride and ownership. By investing in a visionary workplace, the message conveyed to clients, lawyers, employees, recruits and family members is that Bingham is a leader in every facet.
The new 300,000sf office spans 13 floors. To describe the new office as a generational leap from the traditional Boston law firm environment would severely understate the impact of the space. The open plan physically opens the work environment to foster transparency and staff interaction and promotes collaboration. The new office also features:
- open floor plan with workstations and private offices
- state-of-the-art media production studio for internal and external communications
- law library for research and investigation
- expansive community and meeting spaces in a variety of sizes and styles including a two-story divisible function room which can accommodate 300
- practice floor hubs (central service areas and conference rooms 40 in total) on every floor
- a full service gym and fitness center
- Sidebar Café, a full service cafeteria with spacious dining rooms and private dining spaces
Forward Thinking, Environmental Improvements
Forward-thinking and environmentally conscious, Bingham capitalized on “green” opportunities, most notably natural daylighting and energy management. In addition, Structure Tone and Bingham staff committed to an aggressive sustainable construction and materials management program.
The sustainability program construction elements include:
- drywall materials 100% recycled content from within 500 mile radius
- metal studs from MA, an average of 67% recycled content
- structural steel with a minimum standard of 25% post consumer recycled content
- ceilings containing minimum 70% recycled content and ceilings factory-cut to size, avoiding waste
- paints, sealants, carpets, etc. are no or low VOCs
- pre-filter material installed on return air during all heavy construction and demolition
- green sweep used throughout construction to control dust and reduce health risks
- demolition and construction waste closely monitored resulting in 80% recycling rate
Scheduled to Meet the Challenge
Completing a project of this size in eight months required immense team coordination. The preconstruction phase was maximized to work out the logistics, schedule and procurement of long-lead items. During the construction phase, proper planning and scheduling of freight elevator(s) used for moving workers and materials had to be coordinated each and every day as the project ran 24 hours, 7 days a week, in addition to the deliveries, man-power and sequence of work. Significant challenges the team managed include:
- the construction of the structural opening on the 34th and 35th floors, and also on the 13th and 14th floors, which house conferencing facilities and a two-level auditorium. To maintain the structural integrity of the building’s façade, steel tubes were installed to reinforce the existing spandrel beams and to allow interior structural members to be removed
- a myriad of piping and ductwork serving the kitchen equipment and exhaust hoods needed to be weaved through a congested ceiling space, and then through existing systems on a nearby mechanical floor. Another challenge was the intricate staging required within the two-story mechanical floor
- several products were manufactured overseas and were identified very early on during design development and preconstruction meetings for long-lead purchase. Products such as wood ceilings from the Netherlands, carpet from France, stone from Italy and more than 5,000 custom light fixtures were crucial to have on site for installation to meet the move in date
