Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital is in the business of improving the quality of life for patients with disabilities and their families, through its patient care, teaching, and research programs.

For 42 years, the organization, which is part of the not-for-profitPartners HealthCare (Boston), operated a facility on Nashua Street in Boston. But its small double-occupancy rooms, inaccessible bathrooms, and narrow corridors had become outdated, and there wasn’t enough outdoor space for therapy programs.

David Storto, president, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, says the organization considered several options, including purchasing another healthcare facility, adding a new wing at the existing location, doing a gut renovation, and even moving to a suburban location. But none fully supported the organization’s objectives, which include advocacy efforts within the community and providing patients access to the outdoors for adaptive sports, such as kayaking.

“We wanted to stay on the waterfront to maintain that kind of programming,” he says. “And bringing the community into the facility is part of our desire to get rehab out of the basement, so to speak, and have people understand physical disability and rehabilitation in a different way.”

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