BOSTON, MA, June 4, 2025 – Walsh Brothers is proud to announce that the Boston Medical Center (BMC) Yawkey 5 and 6 Inpatient Expansion Project has earned two distinguished industry honors:
- The National 2025 Baldwin Group Build America Award in the Building Renovation ($76–$125 million) category.
- The Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) New England Chapter Project Achievement Award for Project of the Year.
These prestigious awards recognize not only the technical excellence of the renovation and expansion project, but also the extraordinary collaboration, innovation, and safety achieved through an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) approach.
Transforming Care in a High-Stakes Environment
BMC is New England’s largest safety-net hospital and busiest trauma center, with 510 beds serving a diverse, urban patient population. Due to increased utilization and high occupancy rates, the hospital needed to expand its inpatient capacity to continue providing timely, quality care.
The solution: renovate the existing 5th floor and construct a new 6th floor addition atop the Yawkey Building—a seven-story structure originally built in 1972 for outpatient services. The challenge: execute this transformation directly above active intensive care units on a zero-lot-line urban site spanning a major Boston thoroughfare.
Project Challenges That Set the Bar
This project’s complexity and constraints were unmatched. Key challenges included:
- Active urban setting — The Yawkey Building spans Massachusetts Avenue, a critical four-lane corridor with 3,500 vehicles passing underneath each morning.
- Zero lot-line site — Limited to no staging space, requiring precise logistics and coordination.
- Occupied facility — Construction was carried out above active ICUs without disrupting critical care operations.
- Innovative delivery model — A multi-party Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) contract united all stakeholders under shared goals and risk.
- Flawless safety record — Over 293,000 work hours logged with zero safety incidents.
Building Success Through Integrated Project Delivery
At the heart of the project’s success was a deeply collaborative IPD Partnership Team, formed under a unified agreement that encouraged creative problem-solving and transparency. Partners aligned around a “one company” mindset, prioritizing BMC’s mission and goals above all else.
Partners included:
- Owner: Boston Medical Center
- Owner’s Project Manager: Redgate
- Architects: Tsoi Kobus Design
- Engineers: CMTA, Odeh/WSP, SGH
- General Contractor: Walsh Brothers, Incorporated
- Trade Partners: EMCOR Services, McDonald Electric, Sweeney Drywall
- Consultants and Subcontractors
The collaborative environment enabled critical risk mitigation across safety, schedule, and budget — exemplified by Walsh Brothers’ early involvement in design, providing real-time cost feedback and fostering integration across traditionally siloed phases.
A Legacy of Innovation and Care
“Walsh Brothers’ deep technical knowledge, forward-thinking, risk mitigation, and collaborative approach ensured the owner’s best interests were always the focus, delivering the best possible product and team experience.”
This project marks Phase 1 in a series of clinical improvements at BMC, and the strength of the partnership has set a new standard for future healthcare construction in urban environments.
Walsh Brothers is honored to have contributed to this essential expansion in support of BMC’s mission and is proud to be recognized for building not only award-winning infrastructure but also for fostering enduring relationships and establishing a model for integrated delivery.
About Walsh Brothers
Walsh Brothers, Incorporated, founded in 1901 and based in Boston, is a leading construction management firm well known for its work on complex, high-quality, and sensitive building projects in a wide range of industries and specialties for world-class health care, academic and research institutions. For more information, please visit www.walshbrothers.com or https://www.linkedin.com/company/walsh-brothers-incorporated-.
Contact
Kenneth White
Director of Business Development
Info@walshbrothers.com
