Code Red Consultants served as the Registered Design Professional for the fire alarm system retrofit design project at Biogen Building 8 in Cambridge, MA, where final testing was completed in March of 2022.

The existing 7-story high-rise, mixed-use building contains almost 260,000 gross square feet of laboratories, office space, and assembly areas. Building 8 is also volumetrically connected to the adjacent Building 9 via pedestrian walkway.

The new fire alarm system is a fully addressable Emergency Voice/Alarm Communication System (EVACS) which uses both public mode and private mode signaling, necessitated by the unique occupancies of the building. The new fire alarm system was designed with integration in mind as various ancillary system controls (HVAC/damper operations, elevator recall, A/V overrides, etc.) were transferred from the existing system to the new system. In addition, the new fire alarm system was provided with a dedicated Firefighter’s Smoke Control Panel which migrated control and supervision of the existing smoke control systems from the Building Automation System (BAS) to the fire alarm system in a seamless transition.