Johnson and Yelkikanat Pen Article in Healthcare Facilities Today

In an article co-written for Healthcare Facilities Today, Principal Jarret Johnson, PE, and Associate Principal Tuna Yelkikanat, PE, share proactive structural engineering strategies to help address a number of challenges facing healthcare and life sciences developments today—including economic uncertainty, regulatory shifts, and evolving policy landscapes.

Complex healthcare projects often involve juggling conflicting priorities, multiple stakeholders, and an extensive approval process—adding time and cost. By integrating the detailing process into the design phase, project teams can make informed decisions during bid, significantly reducing cost uncertainty and speeding up construction timelines.

Citing two of our recent projects, Jarret and Tuna demonstrate how DeSimone has responded to increasing demand for flexibility in lab spaces. For the 585,000 SF Life Sciences Center at 2 Harbor, a high-performance research hub in Boston, our team designed a vertically stacked, high-performance research hub. Its concrete structural system provides clean ceilings and unobstructed views to the waterfront while supporting flexible floorplates that can shift between wet and dry lab configurations as tenants evolve.

At West End Labs, the adaptive reuse of an automotive showroom and repair facility, DeSimone engineers helped transform the 1920s structure to meet market demand for life sciences space while avoiding the costs associated with new construction. The modern, 380,000 SF research facility was designed to be scalable through the inclusion of connection points on each floor allowing customizable lab space for future tenants.

Read the article here.