Genzyme's green building 3/26/2004 IF EVERY new office building included the energy-conserving features of Genzyme's new headquarters in Cambridge, the country would consume less fuel and produce a much smaller quantity of greenhouse gases. Unfortunately, the 12-story Genzyme building is a brilliant exception. If its forward-looking systems for natural light and ventilation, among other features, win it the highest-level designation for resource conservation by the US Green Building Council, it will be the first large office building in the United States to reach this standard. The Genzyme building shouldn't stand out as much as it does. Too few states make a practice of taking successful innovations in buildings like Genzyme's and making them part of mandated building codes. In New Jersey, Governor James McGreevey has ordered all new school buildings to meet some of the Green Building Council's standards. Connecticut's Governor John Rowland has looked to a new set of building guidelines as one way to meet the climate change goals that New England governors and eastern Canadian premiers set for themselves in 2001. In Massachusetts, the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and the Division of Capital Asset Management help state agencies design energy-efficient buildings. But both residential and commercial building codes set low standards. The Genzyme building, designed by Behnisch, Behnisch and Partner of Germany and Next Phase Studio of Jamaica Plain, is a great advertisement for "green" features because they also help make it a cheery place for its 900 employees to work. Sunlight comes in through its outer walls of windows (more than 800 of which can be opened) and through the interior atrium. Atrium light is maximized by rooftop mirrors that move automatically to catch as much sun as possible, by mobile-like suspended acrylic squares, and by reflective pools at the atrium base. A portion of the roof is planted with vegetation to reduce storm water runoff and the "heat island" effect of paved surfaces. The company also wins green points by putting its site on a reclaimed brownfield near a T station, by recycling most of its construction waste, and by providing indoor bike storage and showers and lockers. Genzyme estimates that its "green" design raised costs about 15 percent, but the building saves 38 percent on electricity and uses 32 percent less water than a comparable building. The company estimates that much of its payoff for the extra investment will come in the next decade or beyond in the form of greater employee productivity and easier recruitment and retention. It would be impractical to suggest that all features of the Genzyme building become standard in the building code. But states that ignore its innovations are missing a chance to reduce energy waste and climate change. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company. ------------------------------------------------- Genzyme thinks 'green' for new labs Eco-friendly facility in Framingham will be the firm's largest By Stephen Heuser, Globe Staff | October 5, 2005 Riding a wave of acquisitions and upbeat financial news, Genzyme Corp. will start construction next month on its largest research facility, a six-story glass-walled laboratory in Framingham that the company hopes will be the first American research lab to win a ''green building" certification. The building is part of a $210 million manufacturing and research expansion for the Cambridge biotechnology company, which is also adding new labs in Waltham and two bioreactors to its flagship factory along the Allston bank of the Charles River. The Framingham lab, scheduled to open in 2007, will initially be home to about 200 scientists who are now scattered in other buildings on Genzyme's scientific campus in Framingham. It could eventually hold more than 300. ''The company's doing very well," said Rich Gregory, Genzyme's head of research. ''We're extremely pressed for space in Framingham, and the company has a real commitment to Massachusetts, so we're expanding here." Though not as large as some science buildings in the Boston area, where labs routinely occupy a half-million square feet of space, Genzyme said it aims to distinguish its new building by incorporating some of the environmentally friendly features used in Genzyme Center, its corporate headquarters in Cambridge. Last month, it became the largest American office building to win the top rating from the US Green Building Council. Designing an eco-friendly laboratory poses special challenges, said lead architect Henry S. Reeder of ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge Inc. The labs are not easily made power-efficient, he said. They require massive systems for circulating and filtering air, more interior light than is typical, and appliances that are rarely needed in a standard office building. ''You really can't cut down the amount of energy that a minus-80 freezer uses," said Gregory. To increase light without driving up energy costs, the building will include exterior ''sunscreen shelves" that shade its windows in the heat of the day while bouncing natural light indoors. It also will feature an elaborate rooftop heat-transfer system to warm outside air. ''In the old days, you just sucked it in, heated it, and blew it out," said Reeder. The building's scientists will focus on early-phase research in genetic diseases, cancer, kidney disease, and other areas key to Genzyme. As biotech stocks have surged in the past several months, Genzyme's sales growth and promising results on experimental drugs have helped propel the 24-year-old company to a record market value of over $18 billion, making it the largest biotechnology company in Massachusetts, and second only to $19.7 billion medical-device maker Boston Scientific in the life-sciences sector. At a time when pharmaceutical companies are struggling to develop promising new products, many companies and investors have been plowing more money into the Boston area. That message wasn't lost on state biotech leaders, who hailed Genzyme's news yesterday as a validation of Massachusetts' argument that the state's relatively high development and housing costs are more than offset by the area's extensive biotech and medical expertise. ''To be cheek-by-jowl with that concentration of PhDs is something that's invaluable to them and very hard to duplicate outside of Massachusetts," said Thomas M. Finneran, president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. Stephen Heuser can be reached at sheuser@globe.com.