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Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital extends its healing mission to remediate a brownfield site on Boston's waterfront and build a new resilient hospital

SPAULDING REHABILITATION HOSPITAL iS in the business of improving the quality of life for patients with disabilities and their families, through its patient care, teaching, and research programs.

For 42 years, the organization, which is part of the not-for-profit Partners Healthcare (Boston), operated a facility on Nashua Street in Boston. But its small double-occupancy rooms, inaccessible bathrooms, and narrow corridors had become outdated, and there wasn't enough outdoor space for therapy programs.

David Storto, president, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, says the organization considered several options, including purchasing another healthcare facility, adding a new wing at the existing location, doing a gut renovation, and even moving to a suburban location. But none fully supported the organization's objectives, which include advocacy efforts within the community and providing patients access to the outdoors for adaptive sports, such as kayaking.

"We wanted to stay on the waterfront to maintain that kind of programming," he says. "And bringing the community into the facility is part of our desire to get rehab out of the basement, so to speak, and have people understand physical disability and rehabilitation in a different way."

Two parcels at the Charlestown Navy Yard, which had been acquired by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) in 1979 for urban renewal purposes, offered possibility. The roughly three-acre setting was on the waterfront and had space to support desired programming, while the neighborhood itself was undergoing an urban renewal with residential and business developments.

But the location, which formerly served as part of the Boston Naval Shipyard as well as a timber receiving dock, was severely contami- nated with polychlorinated biphenyls, oil, and grease. While ideal for its shore setting, that same factor also posed a risk for natural disas- ters and flooding.

However, Spaulding's desire to remain in the city and on the water was strong enough to make the site a top contender. Furthermore, Storto says, the opportunity to remediate the land was consistent with Spaulding's rehabilita- tion mission.

The owner determined that the site could be cleaned up for $22 million and worked with the BRA to purchase the land from the city. A purchase...