Phillip and Susan Ragon Building Project

Planning and construction

Massachusetts General Hospital has embarked on a multi-year construction project that will result in a magnificent state-of-the-art clinical care building along Cambridge Street. This facility will both strengthen the hospital’s ability to provide exceptional care as well as energize and enliven this vital nexus of Boston’s West End and Beacon Hill communities.

This new facility will enable the Mass General to:

• Address the growing demands for delivering the highest level of care and services
• Alleviate ongoing capacity challenges in the hospital’s Emergency Department and inpatient units
• Accommodate new and rapidly evolving technologies
• Enable the consolidation and organization of related services
• Create a comfortable, efficient and positive healing environment for patients and families
• Prepare for patient surges related to disease outbreaks or natural- or human-made disasters

The front of this new Mass General building will extend along Cambridge Street, providing a welcoming, attractive and lively entry point into the hospital for patients, families, staff and the public. The facility be situated entirely on Mass General's campus, on a parcel framed by Cambridge, North Grove, Parkman and Blossom streets.

The clinical care facility that will rise up in the years ahead will become home to the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute and the Corrigan Minehan Heart Center. It will include 482 single-bed inpatient rooms located in the two towers. These new rooms will enable Mass General to decommission outmoded space in older hospital facilities and convert double inpatient rooms in into single-patient rooms. Single rooms are the standard for hospital care today.

The new building will also feature spacious operating/interventional and procedural rooms, imaging facilities, infusion rooms, exam rooms and clinical support space for pharmacy and dietary. It will include an education center and auditorium. Six levels of underground parking will accommodate 864 vehicles for patients and families only—no staff parking—replacing the spaces currently in the outdated Parkman Garage, which will be demolished. In addition, the facility will provide parking space for 566 bicycles.

Phillip and Susan Ragon Building Project: By the Numbers

• 1.05 million square feet of space
• 5 continuous podium level floors above street level
• 2 inpatient towers
• 6 below-ground levels for parking and support services
• 482 new private single-bed rooms
• 23 cardiovascular OR/interventional procedure rooms
• 100 infusion bays
• 120 exam rooms
• 13 imaging modalities
• 864 parking spaces
• 566 bicycle parking spaces
• 46,000 square feet of public space
• 1,000 new jobs

Massachusetts General Hospital is committed to providing transparency and information about the plans, work and progress as the Ragon Building Project moves forward. Check back here for regular updates, news about the construction and mitigation efforts, and stories about people, work and interesting anecdotes.

In addition, the hospital will host regular meetings with the community to provide information about the progress of the building and answer questions and address any issues. A schedule of those meetings along with coverage of the issues discussed during those meetings will be available on this page.

Latest resources:

• Two-Week Look Ahead: 7/6/26 to 7/19/26 (Updated: 7/1/26)
• MGH Front Entrance Coordination Project: Need-to-know and FAQs (Updated: 3/6/25)
• Logistics Planning Update 2023-2024 (Updated: 10/6/23)
• Environmental Dust, Noise and Vibration Monitoring Program (Updated: 10/3/22)
• Patient Safety Campus Construction Information (Updated: 10/22)

Institutional Master Plan Notification Form

In the City of Boston, hospitals, colleges and universities are required to submit to the Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) an Institutional Master Plan (IMP) for review by the city and public which includes information about existing campus buildings, patients and staff, community benefit programs, parking management and sustainability programs, and proposed projects. The IMP has a set term, and updates are required to be submitted to the BPDA on a regular basis (typically every two years). To initiate review of an institution’s IMP, the institution must submit an Institutional Master Plan Notification Form (IMPNF) to the BPDA—Massachusetts General Hospital submitted its IMPNF to the BPDA on February 20, 2019. Following a 30-day comment period which included numerous public meetings, the BPDA issued a Scoping Determination outlining the scope of the IMP. Mass General prepared and submitted its IMP on April 23, 2021, which was followed by a 75-day comment period and multiple public meetings. Following the comment period closure, additional meetings with the city and public were held to solicit feedback on the IMP. The IMP—which has a term of 10 years—was approved on October 14, 2021, by the BPDA Board, and on November 17, 2021, by the Boston Zoning Commission.

Large Project Review

Large projects in Boston are required to be reviewed through the BPDA’s Development Review process. For institutions, the Development Review process (referred to as Large Project Review) is typically completed in parallel with IMP review. Large Project Review includes the review of a project’s design and approach to sustainability, as well as impacts such as transportation, wind, shadow, air quality, noise, utility infrastructure, stormwater management, and historic resources. Mass General initiated Large Project Review through submission of a Project Notification Form jointly with the IMPNF on February 20, 2019, which was followed by a comment period and public process that included several public meetings. A Draft Project Impact Report which provides details regarding project design and impacts was prepared based on the Scoping Determination issued by the BPDA on April 19, 2019 and submitted for review to the BPDA on April 23, 2021. A comment period was held which included additional public meetings. Following the comment period, further meetings were held with the City and public to discuss the project. The BPDA Board approved the project on October 14, 2021, concurrently with the approval of the IMP. Following BPDA Board approval, additional reviews are required by the BPDA, including design review, as well as supplemental permitting efforts to obtain a building permit, including approvals by the Public Improvement Commission, Boston Water and Sewer Commission, etc. In addition, due to the age of the buildings on the project site, review by the Boston Landmarks Commission was required to approve the demolition of such buildings.

Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Review

Review under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) is required when following two conditions are met:

1. A project is within MEPA jurisdiction
2. A MEPA review threshold is exceeded

MEPA jurisdiction is established when there is a state action (permit, state financial assistance, or land transfer from a state agency). Since the project was required to obtain a Determination of Need from the Department of Public Health and the project exceeded at least one MEPA review threshold for transportation, MEPA review was required. Review under MEPA is a disclosure process rather than an approval; proponents must describe the project and its impacts, and use “all feasible means to avoid Damage to the Environment or, to the extent Damage to the Environment cannot be avoided, to minimize and mitigate Damage to the Environment to the maximum extent practicable.” MEPA review includes review of alternatives, transportation, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, air quality, stormwater management, wastewater and water infrastructure, cultural resources, solid and hazardous waste, and construction. MEPA review is initiated through the submission of an Environmental Notification Form with the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), which occurred on February 20, 2019, and is followed by a comment period and public meeting. The Secretary of EEA issued a Certificate on May 24, 2019, which requested information to be included in the Draft Environmental Impact Report, which was submitted to EEA on April 23, 2021, (jointly with the Draft Project Impact Report submitted to the BPDA) and was followed by another comment period. The Secretary of EEA issued a Certificate on June 16, 2021, which requested information to be included in a Final Environmental Impact Report. The Final Environmental Impact Report was submitted to EEA on October 8, 2021, followed by a comment period, and the final Certificate issued by the Secretary of EEA on November 15, 2021, determined that the Final Environmental Impact Report adequately and properly complied with MEPA and Mass General was allowed to proceed to state permitting for the project.

For Massachusetts General Hospital patients, families and staff who experience significant capacity challenges nearly every day, the new Cambridge Street clinical care building can’t come soon enough. The entire project, however, will likely involve approximately 8.5 years of phased construction.

Design and planning for the building and the multi-step regulatory approval process has taken place over that last several years. The next steps will involve preparing and clearing much of the site, which is likely to begin in summer 2022.

Phase 1

Phase 1 of the project will involve creating the below-ground parking levels and then erecting the tower closest to the Blossom Street side of the parcel. Construction on this phase is expected to last approximately four years, with the initial first side of the building opening in 2027.

Phase 2

The second phase will involve the demolition of the Parkman Garage and construction of the second tower on the North Grove side. This second phase is expected to be completed three years later, with an expected opening in 2030.

This timeline is dependent on many factors, and the Mass General will continue to keep the community and public apprised about the progress and evolving timeline.

West End neighborhood and city benefit

The Phillip and Susan Ragon Building will be resilient, able to withstand major flooding and high winds, serving as a critical resource for patients, families, staff and the community during a disaster. It will also be a sustainable structure, reflecting a commitment to significantly reduce the hospital’s carbon footprint. The building will be powered almost entirely using renewable electricity, with a plan to achieve a net zero carbon in both operations and construction.

Benefit to the neighborhood

This new building will benefit the immediate neighborhood by enhancing and enlivening Cambridge Street as an important gateway into Boston. Retail space and a restaurant, located on the ground floor, will augment the activity and enrich the vitality of the area. A glass pavilion — the North Anderson Street arcade — will create an open feel from Cambridge Street back toward the Bulfinch lawn and the iconic Bulfinch Building. Inside the arcade will be curated exhibits to be developed with the West End Museum and the Museum of African American History. The building’s exterior will reflect the vibrancy and history of the West End community, with the facade of the former Winchell School — later known as Ruth Sleeper Hall — incorporated into the facility at the corner of Blossom and Parkman streets, where the school had been situated.

Mass General is also supporting the community and some of its most treasured organizations and programs in a number of ways, including creating a West End senior/community center and food bank, and providing financial support to the West End Museum, the Museum of African American History, the Old West Church and the Esplanade Association.

A construction project of this size will enable the hospital to pursue an anchor strategy in which a major focus will be placed on hiring a workforce that include a significant percentage of people of color and women. Beyond hiring workers for the construction trades, the project will prioritize working with diverse engineers, consultants and others who can provide the expertise and services needed. The project will also offer training and apprenticeship opportunities to those looking to enter or gain experience working in various building trades and related professions. The Mass General building has already begun looking to and relying upon minority-owned and women-owned businesses when purchasing supplies and other services, and these efforts will expand with the construction of the new facility.

Finally, this project affords an opportunity for the city, community and hospital to work together to rethink transportation and traffic patterns — vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian — in the area. Also, space on the building’s street level will be reserved for the MBTA to use as a future subway station headhouse for the proposed Red-Blue Connector.