Located within the same suburban office park near the intersection of Route128 and Route 3, Building 3 Burlington Woods Drive, owned by GI Partners and Building 5 Burlington Woods Drive, owned by Montana Avenue Capital Partners, share many similarities despite being separate projects with mostly different engineering design & construction administration teams. Vivo Architecture leads the architectural design efforts on both projects, bringing extensive knowledge of life-science R&D requirements and office -to-lab building conversion to both projects.

Programmatically, both 40-year-old office buildings required conversion to support a 60/40 lab-to-office ratio. In addition, both buildings lacked appropriate loading dock facilities, with Building 5 also requiring the addition of a freight elevator. Completing the program requirements, several speculative lab suites are included as well as interior lobby and common areas upgrades and tenant amenities such as a grab-n-go café, shared conference facilities, a fitness center, and an exterior patio for Building 5. The goal was to create a contemporary life science option in the suburban Burlington Market that offered amenities above and beyond other buildings in the adjacent office park. In addition, EV charging stations, upgraded landscaping, bicycle storage and enhanced pedestrian connectivity have been incorporated to meet Town of Burlington’s sustainability requirements.

The multiple challenges of updating properties of a certain vintage to current market expectations provided VIVO the opportunity to demonstrate expert leadership in resolving complex problems efficiently and creatively. For example, VIVO’s experience with core & shell office conversions to life science use provided for seamless coordination of MEP trades design in buildings with low floor-to-floor heights. This allowed the open ceiling concepts in common areas and spec suite entrances to achieve the effect of more voluminous spaces and allowing lab suites to maintain 9’-0” ceilings in most of their spaces. While several unforeseen existing conditions and structural deficiencies caused the owner to shift financial resources away from some cosmetic improvements with regards to signage & branding upgrades, the final projects match the early design concepts very closely, underlining the fact that good design can be achieved with the right experienced team at the helm.