Suffolk Construction marked a tech milestone when it cut the ribbon at 100MAG, the firm’s new innovation campus at its Boston headquarters, according to an Oct. 29 announcement from the contractor. The new space will bring groups from across the construction life cycle under one roof to advance the company’s efforts to embed technology into all aspects of building. The campus will serve as the center of the company’s innovation efforts, focusing on technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, data usage, and quantum.
The move builds on Suffolk’s years-long push to integrate technology into its business and building practices. Suffolk has been championing the BOOST tech accelerator program within Suffolk Technologies, its venture capital arm. The company also revealed its “Jobsite of the Future” push in June, which aims to embed AI engineers on its construction sites.
Doug Harrison, vice president of corporate operations at Suffolk, said the company’s goal is to emulate a “master builder” model by combining its tech capabilities with in-house efforts, such as Suffolk Design and the BOOST program. Harrison also cited a white paper that Suffolk produced with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which pegged six areas where AI can help builders make productivity gains.
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“We’re taking some of the best ideas and problems that we get in from our field and start to work through solutions to start to find efficiencies in the way we work, and ultimately try to drive down cost and schedule,” Harrison said.
Suffolk will leverage its Jobsite of the Future, VC investments, and the BOOST program to explore potential solutions for wider use, via testing at 100MAG. Harrison explained that the ecosystem of 100MAG sits at the intersection between ideas and prototypes, and what can be scaled out to projects and standardized through process excellence.
