United States
project
Red Hat
Red Hat opened its new 40,000-square-foot space in Boston’s Innovation District to house their flagship Executive Briefing Center and Open Innovation Labs, their first on the East Coast. The impetus for the project was Red Hat’s recognition that their workforce and customers were changing, and they needed a more modern facility to address that change.
As a former Necco candy manufacturing plant, renovating the 150-year-old building included blending original features, such as the brick-and-beam construction, with ultra-modern technology, including dozens of touch screen monitors and connected collaboration systems throughout the space.
The design called for preserving much of the building’s historic character, which required a good deal of new steel and “sistering” of new and old beams for additional bracing. Complicating matters was the older building’s limited freight elevators to move materials and equipment up to the office’s location on the building’s third and fourth floors. The team solved the issue by removing windows to hoist those materials up as needed.
Sound attenuation of the open office in a building made of brick and wood posed another challenge. The project team used several different practices to mitigate the sound reverberation throughout the space such as acoustical spray, sound masking, and “floating” floors where the wood was installed over gypcrete and a padding substrate.
To accommodate the master touch screen technology “ecosystem” of the space, our team neatly organized the cabling to run between exposed ceilings and inaccessible hard ceilings as well as connect multiple IDF closets. The team also worked very closely with the A/V designers to adjust their system designs for the most effective and efficient constructability.
Now this innovative technology firm has a modern, technology-rich space to match, one that both attracts top-notch talent and provides customers with an impressive experience.
© Robert Benson Photography
COMPANY
sectors
services
Architect
IA Interior Architects
Client
Red Hat
Location
300 A Street Boston, MA
Sf
40,000
Architect
IA Interior Architects
Project Engineer
AKF Engineers
Owner's Rep
Colliers International
Leasing Agent
CBRE
Contract Type
CM
Award
IFMA Boston People’s Choice ENR New England’s Best Project
