Expertise

Each of SMMA's areas of expertise provides a specific depth of skill and knowledge base with the ability to work independently on projects and research alike. Together, we combine these talents to form our well-practiced design delivery methodology. Our approach is defined by its agility with a disposition to better manage ever-changing priorities and collaborate across disciplines.

Architecture

Facade of Keurig Dr Pepper world headquarters in Burlington, MA

Designed to Inspire

We design places that are responsible, well-crafted, venturesome, and beautiful. To benefit our clients and the built environment, our design is informed by a dialogue between art and science; before we draw, we learn as much as possible about a client's industry and community goals. This critical exploration makes the difference between a building that simply performs and architecture that inspires.

Achieving a Vision

We apply rigor in our design of space, form, and expression: From investigating site feasibility options to implementing energy-savings initiatives, our multidisciplinary professionals work to fulfill visions, tell stories, and expertly communicate brand image. The greatest compliment paid to our work is when we hear, “You’ve expressed our deepest aspirations.”

Our Team Explore Projects

Engineering

MEP/FP

We embrace the idea that engineering can be as creative as architecture. Whether designing and testing high-performance building systems, or custom-engineering applications unique to a specific user group, we understand how to balance up-front capital costs for building systems with our clients' goals and needs. Our deep knowledge base informs our engineering design and aids in our delivery of sustainable outcomes for schools, office environments, laboratories, and campus facilities.

Structural

Our Structural Engineers combine a unique blend of consulting engineering with practical collaboration. Extending beyond the traditional scope of services, we provide consulting engineering to out-of-house architects and build teams. Our experience with schools, advanced technology and life science facilities, and multifamily residential developments gives us a detailed and versatile background.

Our Team Explore Projects
Central utility plant at EMC Centre of Excellence in North Carolina

Interior Design

Luxury meeting room at JP Morgan Chase office in Rowes Wharf, Boston

Enhancement through Integration

Our Interior Design team creates environments that both engage and inspire. Our spaces promote and reflect our clients’ values and aspirations through the use of space, light, color, and texture. We balance budget and function against a flexible and multidisciplinary approach that allows our designs to grow with their occupants, evolving to meet the changing needs of their business.

A Client-Centric Focus

Our interior designers pride themselves on relationship building. We ensure a client-centric approach to create custom design solutions, individually tailored to unique client demands and occupancy. We immerse ourselves in client brand identity to elevate all aspects of the space and guarantee that the environment is a true representation of the culture and operations of our clients.

Our Team Explore Projects

Site Design

Diverse Sites, Singular Focus

Whether redevelopment or greenfield, urban or suburban, our Site Design team views each project as an opportunity to serve our clients and advance their ideals. We share a sense of stewardship with our clients to make sure we respect existing natural conditions while also enhancing the environment.

Forging a Comprehensive Design

Site design synthesizes the planner’s overview, the landscape architect’s eye for detail, and the civil engineer’s grasp of man-made systems. By working together, we also facilitate a comprehensive and expedient permitting process that understands building uses and functions, architectural design, site design, environmental issues, and management of the project schedule. Our team is equally focused on the more nuanced, aesthetic facets of site design and celebrates the site's essence—its natural rhythms, views, resources, vegetation, and topography.

Our Team Explore Projects
Overhead view of SMMA site design drawing

Sustainable Design

Graphic showing the arc of sun in winter and summer

Responsible and Well-Crafted

As stewards of the natural and built environment, we seek solutions that create a lasting, positive impact for current and future generations. We endeavor to build resilient places that perform today and tomorrow through integrating advanced performance practices. We pursue our quest for design optimization with post-occupancy evaluations for energy and water use, daylight and comfort, and space use and occupancy.

Natural Influences

We believe in engaging in a process of discovery. Our clients are invited to explore the unique possibilities of each project, such as Net Zero Energy, WELL, LEED, Living Building Challenge, and Passive House certifications. We are inspired by the elegance of living systems and aim to reconnect people with nature through integrating health and wellness design measures, biophilic design, and addressing healthy materials transparency. Together with our clients, we discover solutions to advance each project to its highest potential.

Our Team Explore Projects

Graphic Design

Visual Storytelling

Our Graphic Design service tells client stories through visual, verbal, and interactive engagements. This practice — comprised of graphic design, marketing, and content experts — builds close relationships with clients to create environmental graphics, brand and messaging systems, UI/UX design, communication strategies, and marketing materials that communicate and elevate the individual experience.

Evoking Identities

While each client's needs are unique, they share a common focus: Who will be experiencing the design, and how will it make them feel? Our response is to adapt the branding to each user-audience, evoking visual identities based on client culture throughout the space to enhance the user journey. With SMMA's in-house expertise, our environmental graphics and messaging participates seamlessly in the places we create to educate, inspire, and captivate.

Our Team Explore Projects
Public staircase at 89 A Street Founders Park in Needham, MA

OPM K-12

Night view of entrance to Holbrook PK-12 High School in Holbrook, MA

More than a Manager

Our Project Management team has managed over $2 billion of new and renovated school construction over the past two decades. We operate with an understanding that proper owner project management services require more than just managerial skills, and our approach begins with transparency and effective communication: By keeping all stakeholders as informed throughout the process as possible, we capitalize on synergistic opportunities and bring projects to successful completions within budget and schedule.

Adding Value, Delivering Results

We provide key professional services important to developing holistic and comprehensive plans, such as energy assessment, commissioning, facility assessment, and strategic master planning. Combined, this breadth of expertise provides our clients with a deep understanding of both the risks and risk-avoidance strategies crucial to a successful public school construction project.

Our Team Explore Projects Procurement Documents