Winthrop Center, the largest passive house office building in the world - Boston, MA

Key Information

Project Name: Winthrop Center

Client: MP Boston

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Services provided: Roofing and Waterproofing, Passive House Consulting, Site Monitoring

Awards: 2025 Award of Excellence from the Council on Vertical Urbanism (CVU), Green GOOD DESIGN Award from The Chicago Athenaeum, 2024 ENR New England Award of Merit for Office/Retail/Mixed-Use.

We are excited to announce that the Winthrop Center is now officially certified by the Passive House Institute (PHI) as the largest passive house office building in the world!  
 
Following an impressive six-year journey of conceptualization and construction, the visionary project by MP Boston and Handel Architects was inaugurated in Boston this spring. The mixed-use tower encompasses 812,000 square feet of Class A office space, alongside an additional 510,000 square feet hosting 317 luxury residences. 
 
The office spaces within the Center are designed to incorporate between 30 to 35% more fresh air compared to conventional commercial designs.  
  
SOCOTEC takes immense pride in having played a pivotal role, offering our expertise in Exterior Wall, Roofing, and Waterproofing Consulting & Monitoring services for this remarkable project.  
 
This project is a testament to the power of collaborative innovation in the realm of sustainable architecture, specifically for large scale buildings. We're excited to see how the Winthrop Center will serve as a beacon of inspiration for future implementations of the Passive House method in Boston and worldwide! 

A special ‘Thank You’ to all the companies and professionals that collaborated to make this project recognition a possibility!

SOCOTEC Team Members included:

• Jennifer Sze
• Christophori Dowd
• Leonardo Toro
• Esteban Mercado Molina
• Angelo Sierra
• Kanjin Zou
• Alex Barmas
• Joelle Nelson
• Jeffrey Somerlot
• Alberto Franceschet