YDC Out On Tour : The 105 By Breakthrough

This past Wednesday, for the first time in over a year, we had the opportunity to visit a construction site with a group of our emerging professionals. One of the many mentoring activities organized by our Young Designers Core,  project site visits provide an invaluable opportunity to see the implications of our work first-hand and to learn about what makes true architecture. Our ideas are only as good as their ability to be built and nothing makes that more clear than speaking directly with people in the field.

Our tour of The 105 was led jointly by PAYETTE’s design team and our Construction Manager partners at Consigli Construction. Designed for Breakthrough Properties, The 105 was conceived as a speculative biotechnology research and development property. It will be occupied by CRISPR Therapeutics, which was founded by a research group including Dr. Emmanuel Charpentier, winner of the 2020 Nobel prize in Chemistry.  Dr. Charpentier worked to discover the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing process which serves as the basis for CRISPR Therapeutics’ focus on developing gene-based medicines.

The construction tour was particularly meaningful as a mentorship and knowledge sharing opportunity as this project is truly emblematic of PAYETTE’s practice and values. It is a building that was authored collaboratively with direct engagement from the Owner, builder, architect and engineers right from the start. The entire team met weekly at our office, going from design start to building permit in only six months. When the pandemic hit, we leveraged the strength of our relationships and managed to execute the GMP and seamlessly procure materials from Germany, Italy and China. Fourteen months later, those materials are arriving on site and the building is going up at a rapid pace and our shared vision is becoming a reality.