New $300m Dana-Farber facility to reshape area

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute yesterday pulled the wraps off plans for a 400,000-square-foot complex that would reshape a key block in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area and make the renowned cancer clinic more visible to pedestrians.

The $300 million project at the corner of Brookline Avenue and Jimmy Fund Way would include research labs, clinical suites for outpatient treatment, and ground-floor retail space, said Rick Shea, vice president for facilities management at Dana-Farber. It might not be completed until 2011.

''We have a huge need for research and clinical space," said Shea. ''This project would also give us a front door on Brookline Avenue."

Dana-Farber has selected architects Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership of Portland, Ore, to design the plans. The firm is known for its work on several high-profile cancer facilities, including the basic research building at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston.

Details of the new facility were expected to be unveiled last night at a meeting of the Longwood Medical and Academic Area Forum, a monthly meeting for officials from institutions in the district and community leaders from surrounding neighborhoods. The Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city agency that would have to approve the complex, planned to be represented at the meeting.

Dana-Farber also said it is preparing an institutional master plan. The document would spell out long-term goals and facility needs in an effort to coordinate with other tenants in the densely packed medical district.

''Their mission is an important one, and we'll be balancing their need to grow with the needs of the community," said Meredith Baumann, a spokeswoman for the BRA. ''We'll be looking at their project from the standpoints of transportation, urban design, and job training.

The project could make Longwood ''more pedestrian friendly for patients and workers in the area," Baumann said.

It would involve razing two low-rise buildings on Brookline Avenue and building on one of the few remaining surface parking lots in the area. The complex would increase Dana-Farber's total space by one-third, and would be the institution's first major project since a 230,000-square-foot research facility was completed in 1997.

''From an urban design perspective, the area will be much improved by Dana-Farber," said Sarah J. Hamilton, vice president of area planning and development for the Medical Academic and Scientific Community Organization Inc., a nonprofit that assists institutions in the Longwood area. ''Anything that's going to support additional residential and clinical care for Dana-Farber is important for the entire area." Hamilton said she envisions the project fitting in with the ''crescendo of development" along Brookline Avenue that reaches a peak at the intersection with Longwood Avenue.

Despite Dana-Farber's prominence in the medical community, its facilities are largely hidden from pedestrians. The Longwood Galleria, with its impressive facade, obscures the taller Dana-Farber buildings behind it. Entrance to those buildings is through Binney Street, a narrow roadway off Longwood Avenue. The new facility would give Dana-Farber a more visible presence and easy access from Brookline Avenue.

The Longwood Medical and Academic Area has recently been in an intense period of construction that includes clinical and research facilities, academic offices, and Merck & Co. Inc.'s research high-rise. Lyme Properties LLC is building a 700,000-square-foot research facility scheduled to be completed in 2007. In July, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said it would lease half of the tower's space. Lyme Properties chief operating officer Bob Green predicted that landing an anchor tenant would accelerate leasing in the rest of the tower.

Jeffrey Krasner can be reached at krasner@globe.com.