An artist's impression of a hypothetical future tower on the site of the Braunwald tower at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. Image courtesy of Mass General Brigham
Massachusetts’ biggest hospital chain says it will replace one of the towers at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area.
Mass General Brigham has not yet submitted a proposal to the Boston Planning Department, but issued a press release Tuesday declaring its plans to replace the 564-bed Braunwald tower at the Brigham with a two-tower facility.
If formally proposed and OK’d, it would join the Dana-Farber Cancer Center’s 450,000-square-foot hospital, recently approved for the Joslin Diabetes Center site nearby, and a raft of academic and institutional projects in the Boston area that have become a key pillar of construction firms’ balance sheets as groundbreakings in other asset classes have become few and far between. However, It’s a category that’s slowly shrinking under pressure from Trump administration tariffs and cutbacks to federal educational and research funding.
No concrete details about the new building in MGB’s announcement, but a rendering accompanying the press release, described in a label as an “artist’s rendering to illustrate [the] vision,” depicted two 10-story towers sitting on top of a 4- or 5-story podium. Renderings show the podium partially extending over a secondary entrance to the Brigham complex on Francis Street previously used to access the hospital’s ambulatory care center.
The announcement hinted that formal building plans may still be in development.
“The system is beginning a multi-year journey to realize this vision, building on previous analysis and design work to modernize the largest existing inpatient building on the Brigham campus. An inclusive and collaborative process will engage clinicians, patients, and community members, whose insights will inform the development of a project plan and the design of the new building,” the announcement said, promising an “extensive” engagement process with nearby residents and community groups.
The new building would deliver “in the 2030s,” MGB said.
“Our plan to redevelop our inpatient building on the Brigham campus, ensures that we will build the infrastructure and technological capabilities required to care for the patients of tomorrow. It’s a necessary step toward our sustained commitment to shaping the future of medicine through excellence in clinical care, discovery, and innovation,” Dr. David F. M. Brown, head of MGB’s academic medical centers, said in a statement.
The new development would include single inpatient rooms, above-grade operating rooms and “extensive capabilities” to support hospital care and the development of “next-generation” treatments, MGB said. The tower will concentrate teams focused on specific disease areas, MBG added, and help the hospital chain free up space at its smaller hospitals and the Brigham’s emergency room by centralizing the sickest patients.
