Image courtesy of Payette

A Cambridge research institute that’s collaborating with Johnson & Johnson on its COVID-19 vaccine candidate is planning a 186,000-square-foot R&D complex near Kendall Square.

The Ragon Institute proposes replacing two vacant buildings at 600 and 624 Main St. with a 6-story lab complex, enabling it to double its staff and serve as a global hub for immune system-based treatments for infectious diseases.

The institute ground-leases the 1.5-acre property from Massachusetts Institute of Technonlogy, and proposes to demolish the two low-rise buildings on the site to make way for the Payette-designed complex. 

“The innovative sweeping, curving and sloping shape of the building accentuates the unique triangular site upon which it sits and reflects the innovation of the research that is unfolding inside,” the institute said in a special permit application to the Cambridge planning board.

The institute was founded in 2009 following a donation from the Philip T. and Susan M. Ragon Foundation, and initially focused on HIV vaccine research through collaborations with Harvard University, MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital. With another $200 million donation in 2019 from the Ragon Foundation, the institute began planning for expansion in Kendall Square.

In 2020, the institute shifted to a focus on COVID, including research on Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine candidate that is seeking emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Philip “Terry” Ragon, founder of data software company InterSystems, sought a “world-class” design of the building to reflect Cambridge’s leading role in biomedical research, the institute stated. The designs retain half of the property as public open space, including plans for a children’s playground.