MP Boston, developer of award-winning projects in Downtown Boston, has announced a partnership with MIT professors, led by architecture professor John Fernandez. The goal of this unique collaboration is to create the next generation of American urban development that will lead to new global standards in building design and functionality. The partnership with MP Boston is being administered through the Metabolic Design Office, a collective founded by Fernandez that includes researchers from MIT and beyond and focuses on the intersection of design, building technology, cognitive science, and digital technologies for next generation buildings and cities.

“We’re proud to work with this distinguished team to develop the buildings of the future,” said Richard Baumert of MP Boston. “We recognize the need to create environments that not only bring energy and life to city centers but also to think beyond the current global standards, with the goal of enhancing the lives of those who work and live there.”

John Fernandez is the director of the Urban Metabolism Group, a multidisciplinary research group focused on the resource intensity of cities and the design and technology pathways for future urbanization. He is also director of the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, the institute’s primary organization addressing the challenges of climate change and global environmental issues. Fernandez is also the former co-director of the MIT International Design Center, a large, internationally funded center for interdisciplinary engineering and architecture design studies, and former Head of the MIT Building Technology Program.

Professors Fernandez and Joe Paradiso, director of the Media Lab’s Responsive Environments group, have been working with the MP Boston team to rethink how cutting-edge urban research, architecture, design, technology, sustainability and engineering are executed against the human paradigms of productivity, wellness and social engagement, with the ultimate goal of creating the next level of the human urban experience. Other MIT professors and researchers will be involved on specific issues of urban food, energy, wellness, virtual and augmented environments and many other topics that will enhance the buildings of MP Boston.

MP Boston’s goal is to incorporate the partnership’s collaborative learnings into its proposed development at 115 Winthrop Square. Now in its final stages of entitlement, the Winthrop Square project includes office and commercial space, residential units, retail, dining, residential and private parking below grade. The project’s 750,000 square feet of commercial office space will set new standards for workplace efficiency, adaptability, environmental sustainability, and wellness. This forward-looking office space will substantially increase its occupying organizations overall productivity, re-establishing Downtown Boston’s commercial preeminence.

“It’s extremely rewarding to take our theoretical work and apply it to the real world with a visionary developer such as MP Boston. That’s really the whole point of the research in sustainable buildings and cities – to make a difference in the world, in the environments that we live and work in,” said Fernandez. “It is important for us to be working with a partner who values investing in dynamic buildings that will shape the cities of the future.”

About MP Boston

Founded over 20 years ago and firmly rooted in the heart of New England, MP Boston is an internationally recognized residential developer of luxury mixed-use properties. The firm spearheaded the transformation of Downtown Boston with an impressive portfolio of projects to their name. Work has included 10 St. James, a 570,000-square-foot office building developed in conjunction with the restoration of the 250,000-square-foot Paine Furniture building on Arlington Street, followed by the landmark development of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Residential Towers.

Next came work on One Charles, which offers 233 luxury residential condominiums, followed by the reconstruction of 179 Lincoln Street, originally built in 1899. The redevelopment of the building offered 250,000 square feet of prime office space complete with LEED certification. This effort was followed by Millennium Place, a 15-story luxury residential building which introduced a new style of urban living to Boston.

Most recently, the firm developed Millennium Tower Boston and restored the adjacent Burnham Building, bringing new life to the neighborhood. Located at the site of the former Filene’s Department Store, the 60-story Millennium Tower Boston showcases a bold new way of living, merging world-class contemporary design with unsurpassed amenities, the highest level of service and exclusive Club offerings.

About Metabolic Design Office (MDO)

Founded just under 3 years ago, MDO is a research and application collective focused on bringing the latest research from multiple fields to creating healthy, sustainable, and technologically advanced environments for diverse communities. MDO mines the latest research in sustainable, green and high performance buildings, cognitive science and neuroscience, wellness, digital technologies, computation and other fields and brings the most relevant and actionable findings to diverse building and planning projects.

John Fernandez, founder of MDO and MIT professor since 1999, has 30 years of experience as a practicing architect in the design, specification and construction of high performance buildings. He is also a internationally recognized expert on cities and the resources they require – a field known as urban metabolism. As a contributing author to the United States Green Building Council National Research Agenda, and author of two books and dozens of papers, Fernandez has been a leader in bringing research into practice for a more sustainable built environment. MDO enlists expertise in cognitive science, design, digital technologies and other fields to advance best practice beyond current standards to create buildings on the cutting edge of knowledge and application.