A Healthy Relationship

CVS Health

Various Locations, Nationwide

At SMMA, we’re proud of every one of our projects—any time we can help a client achieve their design goals, we’ve done our job. There’s something in which we take even greater pride, though: Our relationships. There is perhaps no better barometer of a business’s integrity and, ultimately, success, than the strength of its connections, and our relationship with CVS Health is a microcosm of what we strive for with each of our clients.

Currently number seven on the Fortune 500 list and the largest enterprise in the country to maintain solely domestic operations, the CVS Health name speaks for itself. They are the type of client that everyone hopes to land: a brand synonymous with care, altruism, and responsible business practices. Exactly the sort of corporation we identify with.

Our project work for CVS Health is as varied as it is extensive, running the gamut from a feasibility study for a parking garage in San Antonio to significant tenant improvements at its headquarters campus in Rhode Island.

In 2013, SMMA was awarded a three-year contract to render design services for CVS Health corporate locations nationwide. In addition to the office fit-out opportunities this contract provides, because of the diversity and range of CVS Health’s businesses, the possibility to work on projects of other typologies—including data centers and warehouses, among others—also exists.

Spaces With Purpose

Given the significance of its national presence, CVS Health offices serve highly specific purposes. To date, SMMA’s work for the company has primarily been at pharmacy benefit management offices and regional business offices. PBM offices provide comprehensive prescription benefit management services to over 2,000 health plans; RBOs are located strategically, so that store managers can have a place to check in with their regional supervisors. As much as 80% of space at these RBOs consists of areas for “hoteling” that are available only for a few hours at a time, but allow all visiting managers to “plug in and work.”

In addition to the national on-call services contract, SMMA has developed the company’s corporate facility standards manual, capturing architectural design standards for 13 of its buildings in Woonsocket, Lincoln, Cumberland, and Smithfield, Rhode Island, and setting consistent design direction and construction procurement guidelines for each. We also created a corporate facility program and master plan for the Information Technology Division across CVS Health’s real estate portfolio, documenting current and future personnel and spatial needs at IT facilities at the company’s five main “hubs”: Woonsocket, Rhode Island; Scottsdale, Arizona; Irving, Texas; Northbrook, Illinois; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Reflecting the Company's Character

Most recently, SMMA completed interior design services for CVS Health’s Enterprise Digital Group, the primary responsibility of which is managing the company’s website. The newly finished space incorporates modern office design over two floors, featuring individual workstations, large conference rooms, and small huddle areas.

We look forward to maintaining an active role in CVS Health’s continued growth, helping them write the next chapter in their story and supporting their mission of “helping people on their path to better health.”