Draper Breaks Ground on $60 Million Addition

CAMBRIDGE, MA – Building on record revenue growth, Draper broke ground February 17 on a $60 million addition to its Cambridge headquarters.

The construction will add a 20,000-square-foot atrium with meeting space intended to promote increased cooperation with customers and research partners. The atrium also will include exhibits open to the public featuring Draper’s current and historical work.

“The atrium will foster the exchange of ideas and collaboration—developing new relationships as we seek out challenging problems of global importance,” said Draper President and CEO Kaigham J. Gabriel.

The atrium, which is expected to be complete in 2017, is the most public aspect of a strategic plan of investments that Draper is making in its infrastructure.

Draper is also upgrading its resources, including construction of a Model-Based Engineering (MBE) lab that will allow all of the company’s customers to benefit from an approach that has reduced costs on one government program by more than $150 million. Planned improvements and renovations also include upgrades to its biomedical facilities. These strategic investments enable Draper to provide even better solutions to customers by enhancing its engineering capabilities. Draper will be investing in the company as a whole, ranging from physical plant to the employees.

United States Representative Michael Capuano addressed Draper as a leading innovator in the field and the noted the company’s “reinvention and recommitment in applying new technologies.”

“It is not about what we did yesterday, it is about what we are going to do tomorrow,” Capuano said.

Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons emphasized that Draper’s expansion represents investment in the company and Cambridge. Companies like Draper “increase the relationships we have with our students, our universities and biotech companies and they create a truly dynamic environment,” Simmons said. The atrium expansion “will give [Draper] the space they need to better carry out their work.”

Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash said that companies like Draper foster an innovative environment that has helped draw firms like GE into the greater Boston area.  “The generations that have come through Draper have made a difference in our innovative spirit …innovative economy, infrastructure and the ecosystem we have in Cambridge,” said Ash.