Tag: LEED Silver

It was hailed in the Greater Boston media as the biggest real estate deal of 2010, but the biggest deal of all may be how the new Dassault Systèmes’ campus impacts the lives of its employees.

The 27-acre facility, which includes a gourmet cafeteria, fitness center, and a beautiful outdoor courtyard, will be most striking for its dedication to capturing natural light. Large panel windows dominate the architecture, drawing the sun’s rays deep into interior office space. Walled offices are built away from the windows, so there is egalitarian access to scenery — regardless of your job title.

“You might be 35 feet away from the windows and you can still see over the workspace into the greenery. No matter where you are sitting, you’ll have a view of the outside,” says Sara Ross, of Elkus Manfredi Architects. “There really isn’t a bad place to sit in the building.”

Built into a hill overlooking the Cambridge Reservoir in Waltham, the curved glass office complex takes on the look of a sleek, modern airport terminal from the outside. But to avoid the “lost” feeling of walking down long hallways, the building is sliced with vertical corridors linking opposite ends of the windowed perimeter. These “coffee connection” corridors, which indeed will offer hot beverages, are intended to encourage conversation and “spontaneous collaboration” with co-workers. Read More