In the News

New York and Boston—October 5, 2006— Shawmut Design and Construction recently completed renovations to exhale, on New York City’s Central Park South. The highly acclaimed mind body spa, which originally opened in 2004, was refreshed and expanded to accommodate its growing clientele. Shawmut performed the complex renovations in just five short weeks while the spa remained operational and open for business.

Shawmut’s New York-based Retail Group partnered with New York-based STUDIOS Architecture to complete renovations of the 4,500 square feet of space, including the addition of new finishes, an expansion of the women’s changing room, updates to the ‘quiet area’, and the conversion of a lounge space into a sales boutique. Wood flooring, natural woven wall coverings, and new lighting schemes were incorporated throughout the spa to enhance its existing design.

Shawmut’s Retail Group specializes in challenging occupied renovations, such as the completed projects at Van Cleef & Arpels at 5th Avenue and 57th Street, and phased renovations at Apple’s SoHo location. This expertise was applied during exhale® mindbodyspa’s renovations, as the project team went to great lengths to mitigate dust and noise and only performed work during off-hours when no spa services were in session. With the spa’s patrons passing through construction areas, safety was of utmost importance to the team. Safety signage was posted throughout the spa and protected walkways were created to safeguard the clientele.

In the past, Shawmut has also partnered with exhale and STUDIOS Architecture for the construction of new mind body spa locations in Boston, Chicago, Santa Monica, and most recently in the upscale Hotel Palomar in Dallas, where the project team successfully completed construction of a 10,000 square foot, two-story spa in just 18 weeks. Exhale has plans to grow their wellbeing paradigm to 20 locations throughout the U.S. in the near future and continues to enjoy a rewarding partnership with Shawmut Design and Construction and STUDIOS Architecture.

About Shawmut
Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts with offices in New York, NY (retail headquarters) and Providence, RI, Shawmut Design and Construction is a $600 million national construction management firm providing client-oriented services for retail, academic, restaurant, banking, corporate interiors, cultural and historic preservation, and science and healthcare markets. Visit Shawmut at www.shawmut.com.

About exhale®
exhale®, conceived to fulfill the need for high quality transformational mind body offerings within a spa setting, is the brainchild of leading spa executive Annbeth Eschbach, who is supported by a team of industry veterans. Backed by Brentwood Associates, exhale has plans to grow their wellbeing paradigm to 15-20 locations throughout the U.S. and currently operates 8 locations in New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, California and Texas. Visit www.exhalespa.com for more information.