Akamai Technologies Global Headquarters / Piccard Shelton
+21
Text description provided by the architects. As Akamai Technologies’ new global headquarters, 145 Broadway has consolidated its workforce from six dispersed locations into a unified vertical campus. Establishing the connection within the building and the neighborhood was a defining vision for the design.
As a major urban development, the design process is approx. The 482,000 gsf tower at Kendall Square has been designed to respond directly to the opportunities created through deep collaboration with the design team and the City of Cambridge. This participatory design process resulted in a confident yet sensitive building that fits the scale of the city, inspires employee engagement, and supports innovation.
The hallmark of the conglomerate, five interlocking rods weave together like fingers to create a series of cantilevers that connect downtown Cambridge and the Charles River. Green roofs cover each cantilever and form a network of vegetation visible from the pocket garden at the entrance to the building’s foyer to the top of the tower.
The building provided the engine for the creation of AkaMile, designed by Sasaki Interior Architects. A mile-long winding path, AkaMile connects collaborative workspaces, libraries, game rooms and a cafeteria across the 19 floors of the new Akamai home. This continuous multi-level rotation from garden to sky creates a vertical community and promotes interaction among the company’s 2,000 employees, newly united under one roof. The color spectrum of the AkaMile panel appears through the facade, revealing the Akamai’s collaborative culture to passersby.
LEED-certified platinum, the tower’s high-performance painted aluminum enclosure and Low-E insulated glass panels maximize daylight and views while improving energy performance. Ensuring the long-term continuity and sustainability of the building. Integrated systems include active cooled beams (ACB), high-efficiency chillers, an energy recovery system for cooled beams and a rainwater collection tank for irrigation and cooling tower formation water. The headquarters is also the largest WELL-certified building in the Northeast and the fourth largest in the United States, and supports the city of Cambridge’s bicycle culture and initiatives to encourage alternative transport, and the project includes 150 bicycle parking spaces and a dedicated bike lane along Broadway.
Designed using an innovative top-down construction approach, the tower was constructed of steel combined with basement excavation and construction of lower grade levels. This unique methodology has significantly reduced the construction schedule, improving the project’s economic performance and benefiting the neighborhood by reducing the duration of construction activity.
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