Last week's Globe carried an item that a real estate firm is planning a 5-year, $1 billion dollar, 1.5M square foot biotech complex in Cambridge. Given all the recent news about Gov. Patrick's $1 billion biotech initiative, perhaps Sen Dirksen was right. Predictably, one letter to the editor proposed that the private money obviates the need for the public mone.
Of course, they're addressing two different things, well, mostly. The original biotech proposal was going to be heavily research oriented, but now there is the earmarks for education & earmarks for local infrastructure. The real estate development is going to provide space for future growth, space that the company is hoping will exist.
Real estate in general & biotech specifically are a boom-and-bust phenomenon in Cambridge, though the trend is clearly weighted a bit towards boom. Even before the genomics boom there was a shortage of space & all sorts of old factory space was converted -- one MLNM site was known as the "Box Factory", as it had previously manufactured heart-shaped candy boxes for Valentine's Day. New buildings went up, such as the cluster of current & former MLNM buildings and the Cambridge beachhead for Partners Healthcare's research empire. The really big daddy's were the conversion of a candy factory to the Novartis site & Genzyme's beautiful building. When the tech boom crashed, space intended for companies such as Akamai was hastily converted.
Then the genomics era came crashing down, and suddenly MLNM wasn't gobbling up space but instead dumping it. Sites such as 640 Memorial Drive sat largely vacant, along with many smaller ones. Signs for 'Biotech Space Available'.
The pendulum is apparently closer to boom again, and several biotechs are heading to the suburbs for cheaper rents or more space. Cambridge will never be cheap, that's for sure.
A billion dollars is no pocket change. One unintentionally humorous element in the story was that no clients had been lined up yet -- like anybody in this business can plan 5 years ahead! MLNM got burnt multiple times on shorter term planning -- stuck in a long lease at 640, buildings configured for the wrong mix of chemistry & biology labs, etc.
Biotech buildings have all sorts of additional requirements, many of which I've only recently become aware of. Heavy-duty floors are needed to support equipment. Complicated ventilation infrastructure. Systems to pH neutralize waste water. Some companies have systems to move waste solvents downstairs; Cambridge's fire department has strict limits which grow tighter the higher the floor. Trying to get leeway there is a non-starter; a year and a half ago a non-biotech solvent explosion blew apart a neighborhood in a town north of Boston.
The location is very good; close to a lot of existing biotech, major road routes, and two mass transit lines -- one of which will probably be extended by the middle of the next decade. The area is already congested, but where isn't?
In the image, the Charles River is the dark slash in the lower right corner, and the Genzyme building anchors the lower left corner.
View Larger Map The big parking lot in the center would be a key site, and has begged for redevelopment for a while. The parking lot above it and to the right would also be included -- but also the low rise buildings going diagonally up to the upper left. These are apparently currently low-rent startup space, a useful commodity, but the new buildings will be much taller -- critical in the increasingly crowded biotech zone. A little bit of the space will be restaurant/retail, but with Kendall Square & the Cambridge Galleria nearby, it won't be lacking for eating & errands.
Showing posts with label biotech buildings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biotech buildings. Show all posts
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Slow can be good
My usual mode of commuting is to walk to a station, take a train into Boston & then things get interesting. The biotech zone of Cambridge is not particularly near North Station, nor are there truly convenient transit connections.
There is a little blue bus sponsored by a consortium headed by MIT which starts at North Station & ends at my office. It's a good option, with a few caveats. First, Codon doesn't belong to the consortium (nor will they take us, we're too small), so it's $1 a ride. That adds up over a week. Second, the route maximizes coverage of employers over minimizing travel time, so other options can beat the bus, especially if you aren't in sync. Third, one needs options when the bus is running late or has just been missed.
For the part of Cambridge I'm now based in, any reasonable option is centered around the Red Line, but will also involve a bit of walking. Since the streets are in a pretty ordered grid in Cambridgeport, and we're a few blocks in each dimension from the subway station, there are a variety of reasonable routes.
The big advantage to walking is that you see things you would miss at the speed of a car or even the bus. Everything is closer & you have more time. I like spotting dogs & cats and looking at the details of gardens. There is one crazily cut & painted fence which I pass routinely, whose various designs & inscriptions could keep me interested for months.
Today I stumbled into an ethical dilemma: is it okay to taste the raspberries when someone's canes are sprawled through the fence & onto the public sidewalk? I resisted, but not by much. It was also a big surprise to find that Altus has a peach tree in their parking lot, which is laden with peaches. There's also a few grape arbors around, so if you know the right way to walk this time of year one can find the wonderful aroma of overripe Concords.
By far the biggest pleasant surprise I've ever had in the neighborhood happened a year or so into my Millennium career. I was walking from Fort Washington (a building now entirely occupied by Vertex, which at the time subleased it to MLNM), in a foul mood from the meeting which had just ended. I was pretty much staring at the sidewalk directly in front of my feet when a jarring thought came from my peripheral vision. Did I really just see a chicken? Sure enough, the little garden had 2 or 3 beautiful poultry strutting & scratching. I saw them there off-and-on for several years, but I haven't seen them for a long while so I assume they're gone. I really do miss the Cambridge Chickens.
There is a little blue bus sponsored by a consortium headed by MIT which starts at North Station & ends at my office. It's a good option, with a few caveats. First, Codon doesn't belong to the consortium (nor will they take us, we're too small), so it's $1 a ride. That adds up over a week. Second, the route maximizes coverage of employers over minimizing travel time, so other options can beat the bus, especially if you aren't in sync. Third, one needs options when the bus is running late or has just been missed.
For the part of Cambridge I'm now based in, any reasonable option is centered around the Red Line, but will also involve a bit of walking. Since the streets are in a pretty ordered grid in Cambridgeport, and we're a few blocks in each dimension from the subway station, there are a variety of reasonable routes.
The big advantage to walking is that you see things you would miss at the speed of a car or even the bus. Everything is closer & you have more time. I like spotting dogs & cats and looking at the details of gardens. There is one crazily cut & painted fence which I pass routinely, whose various designs & inscriptions could keep me interested for months.
Today I stumbled into an ethical dilemma: is it okay to taste the raspberries when someone's canes are sprawled through the fence & onto the public sidewalk? I resisted, but not by much. It was also a big surprise to find that Altus has a peach tree in their parking lot, which is laden with peaches. There's also a few grape arbors around, so if you know the right way to walk this time of year one can find the wonderful aroma of overripe Concords.
By far the biggest pleasant surprise I've ever had in the neighborhood happened a year or so into my Millennium career. I was walking from Fort Washington (a building now entirely occupied by Vertex, which at the time subleased it to MLNM), in a foul mood from the meeting which had just ended. I was pretty much staring at the sidewalk directly in front of my feet when a jarring thought came from my peripheral vision. Did I really just see a chicken? Sure enough, the little garden had 2 or 3 beautiful poultry strutting & scratching. I saw them there off-and-on for several years, but I haven't seen them for a long while so I assume they're gone. I really do miss the Cambridge Chickens.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Settling in
One of the reasons I got to peek in on 640 yesterday is my branch of Codon Devices has moved to new quarters. Whereas before we were down at near the east end of the Cambridge biotech zone at One Kendall Square, now I'm near the west edge closer to Central Square.
I'm proud that I didn't gain much stuff since the last move; though the file box was nearly full this time so things are creeping up.
One big change is that One Kendall Square had a lot of pricey but good restaurants nearby, and was also in range of the fleet of food trucks that park near the MIT Campus. The new site is in the borderlands between industrial Cambridge and residential Cambridge, with the result that there are only a few small pizza / sub shops in very close proximity. However, less than 10 minutes away is the culinary UN of Central and also 3 grocery stores (one standard one, a Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods), two of which have extensive salad bars.
The really big change is I have both a roomy cube & am steps away from my laboratory collaborators -- most have offices/cubes on the same floor (which is all offices), and the lab is now just a single unbarricaded staircase away -- as well as the breakroom and the restrooms.
The new office space also has lots of desk space & lots of light, almost too much in the morning. My tender perennials and annual herbs have already lined up with applications for asylum; the faint aroma of basil & rosemary should brighten up those grey winter days!
I'm proud that I didn't gain much stuff since the last move; though the file box was nearly full this time so things are creeping up.
One big change is that One Kendall Square had a lot of pricey but good restaurants nearby, and was also in range of the fleet of food trucks that park near the MIT Campus. The new site is in the borderlands between industrial Cambridge and residential Cambridge, with the result that there are only a few small pizza / sub shops in very close proximity. However, less than 10 minutes away is the culinary UN of Central and also 3 grocery stores (one standard one, a Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods), two of which have extensive salad bars.
The really big change is I have both a roomy cube & am steps away from my laboratory collaborators -- most have offices/cubes on the same floor (which is all offices), and the lab is now just a single unbarricaded staircase away -- as well as the breakroom and the restrooms.
The new office space also has lots of desk space & lots of light, almost too much in the morning. My tender perennials and annual herbs have already lined up with applications for asylum; the faint aroma of basil & rosemary should brighten up those grey winter days!
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Peeking in on the Old Homestead
I had the occasion to walk by 640 Memorial Drive, the building in which I spent half of my Millennium career. It's a grand old building with an interesting history.
640 was original built by Henry Ford as an automobile assembly plant located close to a major market -- shipping cars from Michigan was proving troublesome and he wanted an alternative. To economize on land, he envisioned a semi-vertical assembly line -- the standard assembly line would be folded into a series of floors. Giant overhead cranes would lift parts and semi-completed assemblies between floors. The scheme proved impractical, and Ford later built a conventional assembly line over in Somerville. The building went through a number of industrial uses, including being a Polaroid camera assembly plant. It was apparently quite an eyesore in the late 80's, but by the time I first noticed it in the mid-90's it had been rehabbed very nicely. The huge bay once ranged by the cranes is now a soaring atrium & the site of the old railyard is parking.
When I interviewed at Millennium in 1996 they occupied top 2 floors, and by the time I arrived a portion of the middle (3rd) floor had been taken, plus the mouse facility in the basement. Eventually, another major tenant in the building (who made medical alert bracelet systems) was enticed to vamoose, leaving only a single other tenant (a pathology lab).
Around the time I moved back into 640 in 1999 there was a huge effort to fit out all this space. But, before a few years passed Millennium started its deflation and the parking lot starting getting empty again. Eventually, everyone moved out, leaving Millennium with an empty building with a lot of lease left on it.
I peered in a few windows and was surprised to see more occupied than expected. I didn't have time to browse a lot, but while some 1st floor offices were clearly vacant some of the space on the 2nd and 3rd floors were clearly occupied -- though I think my old haunt wasn't. I know there was at least recently some significant lab space vacant, as Codon took a look at it.
Millennium has, of course, been trying to unload the space ever since they moved out. Because it was lumped into restructuring costs, the space was absolutely off-limits -- even when a major power failure crippled the other buildings, 640 was not even seriously considered -- accounting rules are rules.
Which brings up a question. A major reason for vacating buildings was to save money, and even renting empty space is cheaper than having it occupied (light, heat, security, IT support, etc). But, a huge chunk of the cost savings were supposed to come from subletting the space -- a story repeated with other facilities. I wonder how big the gap is (and how fast it is growing) between projected savings and actual ones. Perhaps its buried in a financial statement somewhere, but it is certainly not a bit of forecasting anybody is going to be crowing about.
640 was original built by Henry Ford as an automobile assembly plant located close to a major market -- shipping cars from Michigan was proving troublesome and he wanted an alternative. To economize on land, he envisioned a semi-vertical assembly line -- the standard assembly line would be folded into a series of floors. Giant overhead cranes would lift parts and semi-completed assemblies between floors. The scheme proved impractical, and Ford later built a conventional assembly line over in Somerville. The building went through a number of industrial uses, including being a Polaroid camera assembly plant. It was apparently quite an eyesore in the late 80's, but by the time I first noticed it in the mid-90's it had been rehabbed very nicely. The huge bay once ranged by the cranes is now a soaring atrium & the site of the old railyard is parking.
When I interviewed at Millennium in 1996 they occupied top 2 floors, and by the time I arrived a portion of the middle (3rd) floor had been taken, plus the mouse facility in the basement. Eventually, another major tenant in the building (who made medical alert bracelet systems) was enticed to vamoose, leaving only a single other tenant (a pathology lab).
Around the time I moved back into 640 in 1999 there was a huge effort to fit out all this space. But, before a few years passed Millennium started its deflation and the parking lot starting getting empty again. Eventually, everyone moved out, leaving Millennium with an empty building with a lot of lease left on it.
I peered in a few windows and was surprised to see more occupied than expected. I didn't have time to browse a lot, but while some 1st floor offices were clearly vacant some of the space on the 2nd and 3rd floors were clearly occupied -- though I think my old haunt wasn't. I know there was at least recently some significant lab space vacant, as Codon took a look at it.
Millennium has, of course, been trying to unload the space ever since they moved out. Because it was lumped into restructuring costs, the space was absolutely off-limits -- even when a major power failure crippled the other buildings, 640 was not even seriously considered -- accounting rules are rules.
Which brings up a question. A major reason for vacating buildings was to save money, and even renting empty space is cheaper than having it occupied (light, heat, security, IT support, etc). But, a huge chunk of the cost savings were supposed to come from subletting the space -- a story repeated with other facilities. I wonder how big the gap is (and how fast it is growing) between projected savings and actual ones. Perhaps its buried in a financial statement somewhere, but it is certainly not a bit of forecasting anybody is going to be crowing about.
Friday, May 04, 2007
Biotech Buildings
I had the opportunity today to attend an event at the Genzyme Center and boy is that building a stunner. A soaring atrium contains mobiles which cast rainbows all over the space. There are watercourses and plantings at ground level, glass elevators -- more of a hotel lobby than an office building.
Novartis' Cambridge facility also has a nice atrium, though a bit more staid. Cell Signalling Technologies' lobby on the North Shore resembles a small jungle.
Biotech buildings in Cambridge are a mix. Some renovated older buildings are quite attractive, and some really are pretty plain. New buildings are a mix too. Space is precious, so those atria really shout 'we can afford it!'. Millennium's first custom building (75 Sidney) had a small atrium with a spiral stair (alas, not a double spiral!), but the later buildings used decorative ornamentation (granite in the bathrooms!) and non-rectangular walls in place of unusable air space.
Much as old banks built solid buildings with serious marble & columns to emphasize their solidity & seriousness, so too does a flashy building speak of a company's confidence in its future. Of course, such confidence is all too often misplaced. As a graduate student I watched Hybridon's headquarters emerge from a rehabbed tire warehouse, but then at Millennium I got to see the gorgeous inside -- because Hybridon was subletting the space to us. One company going up, another going down. Later, Millennium started shedding space and discovered that two story atria with a staircase looks nice, but doesn't make subletting the building a floor at a time practical without some changes.
It is also useful to be skeptical of some of the touted benefits of architecture. I am a fan of good architecture, but what looks good doesn't always work well. I love seeing Frank Lloyd Wright houses, but living in one is reputed to require some getting used to. All glass conference room walls may emphasize openess & light, but sometimes you don't really want to be a goldfish. MIT's Stata center is very funky, but just try finding an office in there (and worse, the interior is dead for at least one major cellphone carrier, meaning you can't be guided in).
In the end, some is just a matter of taste. I actually had the privilege of living in a famous bit of architecture for a semester, a Gropius-designed dorm at Harvard. I loved it; most students hated the small rooms. Plus, noise propagated dreadfully (our late night card games were often shut down) and it really didn't work well as a co-ed dorm - only one bathroom per floor, and those were definitely not suitable for unisex use. Worse, you had to go through the stairwell to get to another floor -- and the stairwell was keyed. Don't forget your key at night, or you get locked in a fishbowl in your PJs!
Do architectural gems translate to a happier, more productive workforce? Or are you stuck with a museum piece which resists change? I don't have a crystal ball -- though perhaps you can find a conference room which looks like one.
Novartis' Cambridge facility also has a nice atrium, though a bit more staid. Cell Signalling Technologies' lobby on the North Shore resembles a small jungle.
Biotech buildings in Cambridge are a mix. Some renovated older buildings are quite attractive, and some really are pretty plain. New buildings are a mix too. Space is precious, so those atria really shout 'we can afford it!'. Millennium's first custom building (75 Sidney) had a small atrium with a spiral stair (alas, not a double spiral!), but the later buildings used decorative ornamentation (granite in the bathrooms!) and non-rectangular walls in place of unusable air space.
Much as old banks built solid buildings with serious marble & columns to emphasize their solidity & seriousness, so too does a flashy building speak of a company's confidence in its future. Of course, such confidence is all too often misplaced. As a graduate student I watched Hybridon's headquarters emerge from a rehabbed tire warehouse, but then at Millennium I got to see the gorgeous inside -- because Hybridon was subletting the space to us. One company going up, another going down. Later, Millennium started shedding space and discovered that two story atria with a staircase looks nice, but doesn't make subletting the building a floor at a time practical without some changes.
It is also useful to be skeptical of some of the touted benefits of architecture. I am a fan of good architecture, but what looks good doesn't always work well. I love seeing Frank Lloyd Wright houses, but living in one is reputed to require some getting used to. All glass conference room walls may emphasize openess & light, but sometimes you don't really want to be a goldfish. MIT's Stata center is very funky, but just try finding an office in there (and worse, the interior is dead for at least one major cellphone carrier, meaning you can't be guided in).
In the end, some is just a matter of taste. I actually had the privilege of living in a famous bit of architecture for a semester, a Gropius-designed dorm at Harvard. I loved it; most students hated the small rooms. Plus, noise propagated dreadfully (our late night card games were often shut down) and it really didn't work well as a co-ed dorm - only one bathroom per floor, and those were definitely not suitable for unisex use. Worse, you had to go through the stairwell to get to another floor -- and the stairwell was keyed. Don't forget your key at night, or you get locked in a fishbowl in your PJs!
Do architectural gems translate to a happier, more productive workforce? Or are you stuck with a museum piece which resists change? I don't have a crystal ball -- though perhaps you can find a conference room which looks like one.
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