Landmark Four & BEA Systems
Location: Burlington, MA
Electrical value: $1,000,000

With Spaulding and Slye as the general contractor, and MEI as the preferred electrical contractor, work began on the new 90,000 square foot four-story Landmark Four Building in November, 2000. Shortly after the start of base construction, BEA Systems leased the entire building and contracted with Spaulding and Slye and MEI to carry out their fitup.

BEA is the world's leading application infrastructure software company with more than 13,000 customers around the world including the majority of the Fortune Global 500. Based in San Jose, California, BEA decided to consolidate its three small Boston-area satellite offices, locating them in one new state-of-the-art building.

Already being on site and being familiar with the Landmark Four Building were big advantages for MEI, but the jobs were very difficult to manage both in the field and in the office. We were dealing with two completely separate projects/contracts/drawings and contacts under the same roof at the same time! Normally the base building would be almost complete before the tenant fit-up would start but that was not the situation in this case. Tenant fitup work could not begin until May, 2001, but both projects had to be completed within weeks of each other -by early September when BEA employees would move into their new space.

Like the Bristol-Myers and SG&H jobs, this one presented unique challenges. MEI crews were involved on all four floors on both the base and tenant projects , working nights and weekends throughout the summer to finish by September. Compounding the time crunch, material had to be carried up the stairs because elevators were not in operation until the very end of the project. The last six weeks were particularly stressful because each floor was jammed with materials of more than 100 men and women from the different trades – all driving to meet the deadline.

A highlight of MEI's work on the Landmark Four Building and BEA projects is unique, state-of-the-art lighting. A large portion of open office area features indirect cable-hung fluorescent fixtures controlled by a system that dims the lights automatically when the sunlight comes through the glass. We installed drop-down projectors and dimmable lighting in several conference rooms and indirect lighting in a central core of private offices. A large, two-story open foyer boasts a unique lighted soffit. Similar to the SG&H fitup, the design was an open ceiling concept in the corridors with all conduits, boxes, and fixtures exposed.

The Landmark Four Building was completed as scheduled, and today BEA employees enjoy working in this handsome 21st Century building powered by an electrical system designed to meet future needs.