by James Patrick Mackey
Original Appearance
Boston Scientific, final result.
In the late fall of 2014, Wessling Architects completed a unique multibuilding façade renovation project for Boston Scientific at its Marlborough, Massachusetts campus. The challenge facing the project team was how to update the appearance of three large existing office buildings and visually tie them together with a fourth, brand new, contemporary office building. The façades of the three original buildings, constructed in the early 1980s, were primarily composed of precast concrete panels with an exposed aggregate, and alternating bands of extruded aluminum and glass ribbon windows. The façades were very minimalist without any ornamentation, dramatic variation of color, or any notable articulation except at the main entrances which are recessed. Although over the years the buildings had been very well maintained, aesthetically they were fairly unremarkable and looked “dated.”
Designed by Margulies Perruzzi Architects and built by Columbia Construction, the new contemporary office building, known as Building 300, is very different stylistically from the original buildings. This building is designed with a mixture of banded precast concrete panels with colored aggregates of varied exposure, a projecting metal roof “cap” clearly defining the top of the building and giving it scale, and different sized and configured window systems that give hierarchy to the surfaces and transitions of the building while suggesting the programmatic functions contained within. The visual contrast between the new and original buildings was so great that Boston Scientific became concerned that the image of the campus might suffer and that there would be a perceived division between those employees who work in the new building and those who work in the original ones. In late 2013, Wessling Architects was asked by Boston Scientific to consider these issues and recommend approaches to renovate the façades and visually unify the campus.
Knowing that the existing precast panels and window systems would have to remain, and that disruption to the occupants within the buildings would need to be minimized, Wessling Architects began exploring ways to cover or clad the façades. Various schematic designs were generated and studied. Many of these designs, although successful at mimicking the distinctive “look” of the new building, proved to be either too logistically difficult or cost-prohibitive. Finally, Wessling Architects struck upon the idea of applying Conproco Structural Skin, a fiber-reinforced cement-based coating, to the vertical surfaces of the original buildings’ precast panels. This material could be layered and tooled to provide a range of surface variations and horizontal banding, then painted with colors, patterns, and textures to match the appearance of Building 300 as closely as possible. The use of this product held great promise but would require careful preparation and planning in order to achieve success with such a novel installation.
Throughout the entire project, Wessling Architects collaborated closely with Conproco, Columbia Construction (retained as the general contractor), and Bay Contracting (selected as the Structural Skin applicator) to devise the means and methods by which the specified products were applied to create the desired visual and architectural effects. Every detail of the design was carefully considered and often mocked up ahead of time to understand its constructability, long-term resistance to environmental factors, general durability, and overall aesthetic impact. Strong communication was maintained between the team members, both remotely and by regular in-person site meetings, to ensure that the intent of the construction documents was being met. The result of this intense collaboration was a high-quality project delivered to Boston Scientific which achieved their goal of a unified corporate campus projecting an image of equality and progressive thinking to both employees and visitors alike.
James Patrick Mackey, AIA, is senior project manager at Stephen J. Wessling Architects, Inc.
