º£½ÇÊÓƵ

One Boston Wharf Road

Boston, MA

Boston’s Seaport District is in the midst of a transformational regeneration of the city’s historic working port.

Unlocked with $22bn of public investment, the district is now home to an ecosystem of more than 350 companies, from global leaders in technology and biotech, to ground-breaking start-ups.

º£½ÇÊÓƵ has been engaged to provide multidisciplinary consultancy across a broad range of services through multiple phases of the development project led by Boston-based WS Development.

One Boston Wharf Road is a mixed-use building that will be the city’s largest net zero carbon office building when complete.

The all-electric building services and mechanical systems strategy is helping the project target LEED Platinum certification

The 17-story tower was designed by Henning Larsen to evoke the Seaport’s rich maritime history.

Innovative measures will reduce the overall building’s greenhouse gas emissions by over 90% below Massachusetts’ stringent Stretch Energy Code requirements.

Challenge

A central part of WS Development’s Boston Seaport project, One Boston Wharf Road is a 707,000ft² mixed-use building that will be home to the city’s largest net zero carbon office facility: a 630,000ft² state of the art office.

º£½ÇÊÓƵ worked closely with the wider design team to achieve this breakthrough in energy optimization. This bold effort speaks directly to the City of Boston’s pledge to be carbon neutral by 2050 and the client’s aspiration to accelerate this goal.

A key challenge was designing the building to meet the client’s ambitious net zero carbon goals. The team was also designing to reach Massachusetts’ stringent Stretch Energy Code requirements and the City’s Article 37 process.

Solution

The 17-story tower is designed by Henning Larsen and Gensler working in collaboration to evoke the Seaport’s rich maritime history. It will house 630,000ft² of modern office space that will be entirely occupied by a major global technology company, solidifying this company’s major presence in the Seaport district.

The building will also feature ground floor retail space and a new performing arts center comprising of two live performance venues of 500 and 100 seats, respectively. The building is situated in front of a 1.5-acre park that opened in 2021 as the epicenter of Harbor Way, a new pedestrian-friendly artery designed by James Corner Field Operations, that will connect the heart of the Seaport to the water’s edge and provide the district with new public green space.

The net zero carbon status for the office will be achieved by eliminating fossil fuel-fired heating and hot water systems. In their place, all-electric systems will be powered from renewable sources.

These measures will reduce the overall building’s greenhouse gas emissions by over 90% below Massachusetts’ stringent Stretch Energy Code requirements and eliminate 5.1 million pounds of CO2 emissions annually, aligning with the City’s long-range carbon-free future goals.

The all-electric building services and mechanical systems strategy is helping the project to target LEED Platinum certification – the highest level of sustainability covered by the assessment. This all-electric approach enables the wholesale use of renewable energy sources, but also enabled the integration of low carbon electrical heating and cooling mechanisms, including air source heat pump and energy recovery technologies.

Value

One Boston Wharf Road will be the largest net-zero carbon office building in Boston. º£½ÇÊÓƵ’s multidisciplinary team of experts helped to realise this ambitious goal by providing detailed technical input and insight, supporting the wider design team from the earliest stages to full completion.