Image courtesy of Sasaki.
Kendall Square’s latest office building opens today. The build-to-suit, 486,000-square-foot tower at 145 Broadway, part of Boston Properties’ 1.1-million-square Kendall Square redevelopment, will be home to computer security firm Akamai Technologies.
Gov. Charlie Baker, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and Sen. Edward Markey will join Akamai co-founder and CEO Tom Leighton for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2:00 p.m. today.
Akamai began at MIT over 20 years ago. During the fall of 1998, Akamai was incorporated and moved into incubator space in Cambridge’s Kendall Square. Two decades later Akamai has grown into the world’s largest and most trusted cloud delivery and security platform upon which many of the world’s best known brands and enterprises build their digital experiences.
The new urban headquarters is designed differently from corporate campuses that used to be the norm in the technology industry. Where Akamai previously leased six area buildings, the new headquarters unites local employees together under a single roof. At 19 stories, the new facility is the tallest office building in Kendall Square.
The building incorporates many sustainability features, as well as the “AkaMile,” is a mile-long path that connects the 19 floors of the headquarters. It begins in the lobby and ends at the very top of the building where a state-of-the-art cafeteria space takes up the top two floors of prime real estate – where everyone can enjoy the expansive views of Cambridge and Boston. The space leverages the corridors, hallways, and fire stairs seen in a typical office building, but maximizes them by giving them purpose.
“Massachusetts remains a global hub for groundbreaking technological advancement, and our administration has prioritized efforts to create an environment that supports this thriving innovation economy,” Baker said in a statement. “As a home-grown Massachusetts company that has expanded significantly over two decades, Akamai remains a crucial part of this important sector of our economy, and we are glad to help celebrate their new global headquarters.”
The Akamai has signed a 15-year lease on the building, with its costs offset by a $700,000state tax incentive. The architect for the interior work was Watertown-based Sasaki. The general contractor for the interior buildout was the Boston office of Turner Construction.
“Billions of people around the world depend on Akamai every day for fast, intelligent and secure digital experiences when they visit websites, buy something online, use apps on mobile devices, stream movies and sporting events, or play video games online,” Leighton said in a statement. “In fact, it’s not a stretch to think of Akamai’s new headquarters as the mission control of the internet. From this location, the world’s smartest engineers are controlling a quarter-million computers in 4000 locations across 1000 cities and 137 countries, on a platform designed to make sure that the world’s internet traffic is reaching end users instantly and reliably and that their data is secure.
