The Marr Companies has a diverse fleet of powered access equipment that has assisted in the construction and renovation of some of Boston’s most beloved institutions and landmarks. Working in the Greater Boston area, across Massachusetts, and throughout New England, Marr has contributed to the region’s preservation and expansion as a supplier of access equipment and specialty labor services. The company has kept pace with evolving construction methods and practices and offers equipment and related services specifically designed to optimize safety and efficiency on the jobsite.

The Marr Companies, founded in 1898 and now in its sixth generation of Marr family stewardship, has been a stalwart partner to the New England building industry. Marr supports contractors of all types and in virtually every construction environment with a complementary set of products, equipment, and labor services. Marr can pivot seamlessly and safely across its product lines to meet a project’s access and hoisting related needs.

Four distinct businesses make up The Marr Companies:

• Daniel Marr & Son Company – Steel and precast erection
• Marr Scaffolding Company – Scaffold, shoring, aerial lifts, mast climbers, and bleachers
• Marr Crane & Rigging – Cranes, hoists, rigging, and warehousing
• Isaac Blair & Co. – Specialty shoring

A full range of powered access equipment is offered. Marr’s range of access and hoisting solutions, together with related services for design and engineering; installation and dismantling; transportation; warehousing; and safety and training resources, fully complement the work Marr performs.

Marr maintains a carefully chosen inventory of scissor lifts, telescoping booms and articulating boom lifts, suspended access platforms, construction hoists, mast climbers, and cranes. The company aims to provide one stop shopping for its products and services. Contractors of all stripes have confidence in Marr to package these services safely and effectively to improve performance and safety outcomes. As a result, Marr can be found on most jobsites in New England – either working directly for a single contractor or subcontractor or for a variety of contractors. It is very common for multiple contractors onsite to work off Marr’s access equipment in a multi-trade approach.

At Encore Boston Harbor, for example, Marr worked not only for the general contractor Suffolk, but also for glass manufacturer Ferguson-Neudorf, and electric sign company YESCO. Representing the most complex suspended scaffold project in Marr history, Encore required the installation of swing staging in numerous configurations (S-curve, straight, and L-shaped) and varying lengths (25 feet to 185 feet) at four different locations, including the roof. At one location, Marr erected swing staging from the 10th to the 26th floor to enable glass installation of 4,900 glass panels, each weighing between 700 and 1800 pounds. Sister company, Daniel Marr & Son – who erected the steel on the project – designed, fabricated, and installed 150 feet of I-Beam Monorail in all four swing locations to facilitate the hoisting and placement of the windows.

Marr also designed, engineered, and installed swing staging for YESCO to facilitate installation of the Encore signage at the top of the tower. To do this, Marr built 20 systems scaffolding towers reaching 80 feet high in some locations to support the swing stage rigging beams. In addition to suspended scaffolding, Marr provided various contractors onsite with over 50 scissor lifts and boom lifts on site. Crane work for various contractors involved several 90-ton cranes and Marr Crane & Rigging’s 300-ton Leibherr throughout different phases of the project.

The Encore Boston Harbor project was unique in size, scope, and complexity. However other one-of-a-kind projects, like the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Art Installation, seem to find their way to Marr. Contractors in New England consistently partner with Marr to deliver solutions to these one-of-a kind challenges. At the Greenway in Boston, general contractor Shawmut Design and Construction turned to the Marr team to plan the hoisting and installation of the one-ton, 600-foot-long aerial sculpture over the northern end of the Greenway’s Fort Point Channel Park. Marr was involved in the engineering, fabrication, and installation of steel connection points at four locations on three different high-rise buildings. The project required a high level of support, personnel, and equipment to complete the installation over a single weekend. More than 50 Marr employees – such as ironworkers, crane operators, drivers, mechanics and scaffold erectors – worked together to complete the task, which utilized equipment support from six Marr cranes, numerous aerial lifts, and scaffolding. The sculpture consisted of over 100 miles of hand-spliced molecular-weight polyethylene and braided polyester fibers and the installation required a tightly choreographed sequence of lifts to complete installation.

Another noteworthy project, One Dalton, is worth highlighting not only for its dramatic addition to Back Bay Skyline, but for the complexity involved in moving equipment and personnel up and down at the 65-story structure. Rising 760 feet, general contractor Suffolk Construction determined the need for four construction hoists to service the building. To reduce the amount of space on the facade occupied by hoists, a Common Platform was designed, engineered, and erected by Marr. The platform, comprised of four mast climber tower sections connected by aluminum framing and decked with plank and plywood, was tied into the building directly and the hoists were then attached to the platform. Each new platform level was built on the ground and hoisted into position by the site's tower crane.

Swing stages were used by a variety of subcontractors to access the building’s elevator shafts during construction. For Metro Glass, Marr designed, engineered, and installed suspended scaffolding and a temporary hoisting apparatus for the installation of the exterior glass panels.

The steady stream of new construction and restoration work in the Greater Boston area continues. Somerville’s Assembly Row is a small city within a city that broke ground in 2012. Marr has been active on every building to come out of the ground, including in 2021. Marr supplied contractors with access equipment including mast climbers, hoists, cranes, Systems Scaffolding, and aerial lifts.

On one noteworthy project, Marr worked for general contractor PROCON to install 17 mast climber units – a combination of 15 F-units and two P-units – for use by multiple trades at the Alloy, a 13-story mixed-use building. More recently for Ipswich Bay Glass at Building 5B, Marr installed 11 mast climber units, including two electric F-200s and one F-300. For Cranshaw Construction, Marr Crane & Rigging installed twin Alimak hoists on the same building and next door, at Building 8, a twin Alimak hoist and a single Champion elevator for moving personnel and materials throughout the work site. For each of these installations, Marr’s team worked with manufacturer support from Hydro-Mobile and Alimak, respectively, to design and engineer the optimal solution for the client.

At yet another Boston area development, Ink Block Boston, Marr has worked extensively on this 15-story, mixed-use project in the South End. Recent work for Ipswich Bay Glass required the installation of five F-200 mast climbing work platforms for exterior finish work, including paneling and waterproofing. Marr Crane & Rigging installed one twin Alimak elevator/hoist for general contractor Cranshaw Construction on the same site.

Marr is a leading industry advocate for safety training and education. The company’s goal of achieving an accident-free, loss-free work environment is at the heart of its multi-level safety program. In the fall of 2020, Marr celebrated the opening of its new Center for Safety Training located in Canton, Massachusetts. This facility is designed to increase Marr’s capacity to provide safety training and education not only to its employees, but also to end users of its equipment, and will host trainings related to Marr’s products and services. This pairs well with the external safety training Marr’s Safety Department provides in the field. Marr differentiates itself from its competitors with this commitment to training and education.Over the last 13 years, five members of the sixth generation of the Marr family have joined the company to further strengthen the companies’ outlook. Each brings a unique set of skills, talents, and perspectives. Family values are very much still at the core of the Marr Companies’ story and central to the building industry. Marr is cultivating an eager and talented next generation of construction industry leaders to face tomorrow’s challenges. Look for Marr to continue to be the leading name for access and hoisting equipment and solutions in New England.